Preparing for the feast...

Tonight we will go to church and again tomorrow morning to celebrate Christ's Nativity, the incarnation of God, out of His love for mankind!  ♥

We have been preparing by reading spiritually uplifting literature, fasting, confessing our sins and will partake of Holy Communion on the feast.  Our girls have requested homemade macaroni and cheese (they've missed that MORE than meats) and so I will bring that to church and will share that with everyone in a potluck celebration after the church service:

Homemade macaroni and cheese (from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, with a few of my own changes, like adding nutmeg & using cheddar cheese, I doubled this recipe)

• 8  ounces  dried elbow macaroni or desired-shape pasta (2 cups)
• 2  tablespoons  butter 
• 1/4 cup chopped onion 
• 2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground black pepper
• a dash of nutmeg 
• 1 1/2 whole cups  milk
• 12  ounce package cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

 

Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. Meanwhile, for cheese sauce, in a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and add onions. Stir in flour and pepper. Add milk all at once. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Add cheese, stirring until melted. Stir macaroni into cheese sauce in saucepan, stirring to coat. Cook over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently.  Makes 4 servings.

*I've done the above and will bake it at church:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes or until bubbly and heated through.

Some wine, ingredients for a delicious salad with feta and macaroni...

My sister and her husband and 1 year old daughter (and his younger brother and their mother) in their beautiful church in Ottawa, Canada on Nativity.

My dad with almost all of his granddaughters. 

Juliana got a china doll for Christmas!  And new socks.  Olivia picked those out for her.

 And Olivia dancing with Natasha in my parents home after the Nativity Liturgy...

Super scrumptious pumpkin stuff...

Last week we went to a farm near us to pick some pumpkins...we bake them to make pumpkin pie and bread. 

This Pumpkin Spice Rooibus tea (no caffeine) is really good, just $3.99 for a pretty tin.  I like it best with a bit of honey and cream.  And we made cookies and spread Nutella in the middle to eat with the tea.

Trader Joe's has so many good pumpkin treats. 

 And for some homemade goodies:

My sister made these pumpkin pie cupcakes 2 weeks ago.  We ate them with whipped cream on top.  They are SO good.   Here's the recipe from the blog (link above, with my notes in parenthesis):

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (use 1 cup freshly baked pumpkin flesh, pureed)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (instead, use 1/2 teaspoon each, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 cup muffin tin with silicone liners, foil liners sprayed with cooking spray or just spray the cups with cooking spray.  Either of these three methods will make it easy to take the cupcake out after it’s cooked. Paper liners make it difficult to remove the cupcakes.
Mix the pumpkin, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and milk.  Add the flour, pumpkin spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda to the mixture. Fill each muffin cup with 1/3 cup of the mixture. Bake for twenty minutes and let cool for twenty minutes.  Remove cupcakes from pan and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle more pumpkin pie spice on top and serve. ♥ Makes 12 cupcakes.

Apple Pancakes

Happy 1st day of fall!  We picked a bushel of apples two weeks ago and still have about a peck left.  I shredded 2 apples by hand (if you have a food processor that will grate, use it, ours unfortunately broke a couple weeks ago, but it lasted us a good 12 years) to make  

Vegan Apple Pancakes:

 (adapted from Vegan Planet, their recipe is called Flax-Berry Pancakes)

1 1/2 c flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp ground flaxseeds

2 apples, shredded

1 c water
dash of cinnamon

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
Combine flax and water and mix until thick. 
Mix wet ingredients into dry until just combined, then add shredded apple. We ate them with real maple syrup!  This serves 4.

 Olivia and Velvet (who we call "kitty" most of the time) on the trampoline!

 A little turtle...listen to all the voices in the background.  ♥

Baked acorn squash with chopped apples

It's almost fall...the autumnal equinox is Sept. 22nd, just a few days away.  The weather has turned cooler and I'm ready for homemade bread, warm soup and baked squash.

We harvested just 4 acorn squash from our backyard.  I cut 2 in half and scooped out the seeds, filled them up with chopped apples, butter, brown sugar, all spice and cinnamon and baked them.  Mmmm!  I used this recipe as inspiration:  http://www.simplybloomblog.com/2011/10/baked-acorn-squash-with-cinnamon-apples.html
We still have quite a few apples...so juiced 8 of them (about 2 apples yields a cup of cider) for lunch yesterday.  Olivia doesn't like the froth on top, so I spooned it off and ate it.  To complete the meal, we had chicken and carrot salad.

 

 

Yesterday, we did a fun activity inspired by this culinary lesson, since my printer is out of ink, we used the paper bags from Trader Joe's to get "silverware" and make a placemat of proper setting...

 This morning I'm making prosphora as the girls work on their homeschooling lessons independently. It's the first time I've made prosphora in 3-4 months!  As I knead, I'm thinking of the little girl, Salome, who died last February, her parents left us flour.  I'm using that to make prosphora for our church.  I pray that her family, who is now back in Ukraine, is doing well.  ♥  

For lunch today, I am going to make borscht...a soup made with beets and cabbage.

Edible violets

Many violets are edible.  Not the houseplant, the African violet.  Wild violet jelly, candied violets on cupcakes for a little tea party.  I didn't take that picture, but thought it was inspiring.  Violets are a weed, to many, but so pretty and abundant in our backyard here in Ohio right now.

While Hannah was in dance class, Olivia helped me to pick these.  We got 2 cups of violets, then boiled 2 cups of water and poured it on top, this recipe I followed says to let it steep overnight.

Can you see how blue-green the water turned?  When you add the lemon juice, it turns to a pink-purple!  Then we added 2 cups of sugar and the 3 oz. packet of liquid fruit pectin.  My first time making jelly with violets.  We'll be doing this again!

Violet Jelly Recipe:

2 cups violet blossoms, no stems

2 cups boiling water

juice of one lemon

1 package pectin (I used Certo Sure-Jell liquid, it came in a package of 2 3oz. pouches for $4.59)

4 cups sugar

Steep blossoms in water overnight.  Strain.  Have 2 18 oz. jars ready.  Add lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve.  Add sugar, return to rolling boil, and boil for one minute.  Pour into jars and put lit on.  We let ours cool overnight and in the morning, we were happy to find it set up nicely and ate it on toast!

Almond milk...and sweets!

Did you notice the new tab atop?  It's a recipe index, a work-in-progress, as I sprinkle recipes that I have been making throughout my blog posts.  I will keep adding to it as I sift through old posts.

I made a batch of almond milk over the weekend.  I followed this recipe:
Almond milk
 (you'll get 2-3 cups)
1 cup almonds, soaked 8-12 hours beforehand
3 cups water
6 dates or 1/4 cup agave (I used 1/4 cup maple syrup)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Rinse off your almonds and discard the soak water. Add the almonds and the other ingredients (water, sweetener, vanilla) to a regular blender or food processor. Blend them on high speed.  Then, simply put a cheesecloth or strainer over the top of a jar (and put a rubberband around it to make sure it stays) and scoop the milky pulpy almond over it and let it sit, give it a good 15 minutes.  I took out the almond pulp and put it in a bowl...

...and made cookies (SO many awesome recipes on this blog) with it!!!  By the way, the almond milk turned out wonderfully.  We poured it over homemade granola this morning.

Almond chocolate chip cookies

1 cup dried almond pulp “flour” (I didn't dry mine, so I added about 1/2 cup flour to the mixture)
1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
6 tablespoons raw almond butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
dark chocolate chips, as needed

Mix all ingredients well, except chocolate chips.  Scoop onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  My daughter pressed 3 chocolate chips on each one.  Bake 8-10 minutes in an oven heated to 350'F.  Allow to cool (or eat warm, as we did, and the melted chocolate chips are gooey) and enjoy!

We also made bird's nests over the weekend.  We used:

3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted in a pan
1 bag of marshmallows
6 cups crispy rice cereal
5 jelly beans in each one (we got a 15oz. bag of natural color and flavor ones at Trader Joe's for $3.99, made in Ireland, ironic, because on Saturday we old calendar Orthodox Christians celebrated St. Patrick's day!)

After the marshmallows melt, mix in the rice crispies well and form by pressing into bowls, using wax paper, then add jelly beans to look like eggs.  My girls wrapped them in bitty bags and wrote "Happy Easter" on them, put 6 in each of their baskets and passed them out to some of the residents at the nursing home where Rob's Grandma lives....

Doesn't she look cute in my purple sunglasses?  We stopped at Long John Silver's and got some lunch and rootbeer.

Rob played his mandolin at the cemetery, where we spent time at the Grandpa's graveside.  Playing and singing "Amazing Grace," as Grandma holds his music...

Seed cakes

We have been reading The Hobbit, slowly, but together...and baked some seed cakes following the recipe in my Grandma's copy of Joy of Cooking that I have:

2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
9 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mace (I didn't use this)
2 tablespoons brandy (optional, I actually couldn't taste this)
4 cups cake flour (I used all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (I used baking powder instead)
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 egg whites, whipped until stiff
2 teaspoons caraway seeds (I also used 2 teaspoons poppyseeds)
1/3 cup shaved citron or candied orange peel (I didn't have this)
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind (I used about a tablespoon of orange zest instead)

Cream together butter and sugar, then add egg yolks, vanilla, mace and brandy.   Sift together flour, cream of tartar (or baking powder) and salt.  Mix the flour blend into the butter mixture.  Fold in the 9 whipped egg whites.  Add caraway, poppy and citrus.  Mix well and pour into baking pan. 

Bake at 325' F for 25 minutes (or 1 hour 15 minutes for loaves).  Allow to cool.  Enjoy with plain yogurt or a cup of tea while reading your book.

This makes 24 little round seed cakes (I used my muffin tins)!  Or two rectangular loaves.

This is Elizabeth, at 6 months...

We call her "Liza."  My feet.  And the fabric rattle block that Hannah sewed for Liza as part of her babysitting class she's currently taking.

We went out to eat with my parents this past Tuesday....to Ruby Tuesdays, who was giving back 20% on the bill to Parkinson's wellness.  We all had a good time!

Hannah got ribs!  Mmmm....messy fingers.

 Emma and my dad, Peepaw.

My mom and Liza.

Wednesday, my sister, Mary, her husband, Andrey, and baby Elizabeth were headed back home to Canada.  We skipped everything else, we got snow....so we went sledding!!! 

Olivia made a snow angel.

 Natalia crying, Hannah helping her...

Susanna gives Olivia and Juliana a big push down the hill...and below, Olivia just laying in the snow.