…For Ice Cream that is. Today my friend Jen and her son Cole (who had no school because of the snow) came over and we made home made ice cream with zip lock bags and snow! So fun and easy. In a quart size bag you put 2 Tbs of sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp of another flavor if you wish (maple pecan or chocolate espresso would be yummy) and 1 cup milk or half & half. Seal well and place in a gallon size zip lock bag. Add 1/2 cup of salt and 4 cups of snow (regular ice works fine too) and seal well again, so it’s all in the big bag but the inner bag is sealed off from the salty snow. Then just toss, mush, or drop repeatedly on the floor (Jude and Cole’s favorite method:) and in 5 to 10 minutes you will have ice cream! (Take out the inner sealed bag and wash off the salt/snow from the outside, then eat the ice cream inside the little bag- no snow or ice should be in there!)

It must be all the snowy cozy weather making me want to bake all the time! I made some Oatmeal Chocolate chip & Pecan cookies last night that turned out oh-so-good with a glass of milk.
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We woke up to even more snow this morning- and still coming down. Big icicles hang off the roof and the snow has covered our back porch. Yesterday Jude and I played outside when the temp hit 25 degrees but unless it stops snowing we’ll stay in today. I made a big pot of Italian Tortellini soup last night- yum! Jude’s napping now, and I’m off to make some tea and tackle the laundry pile. Here’s a picture from a few days ago of Jude tasting an icicle…

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~Henry David Thoreau, 1854

Snow is starting to fall lazily down to the ground, we’re due for 3-6 inches by tomorrow morning. I made Orange Chocolate muffins* which went perfectly with a hot cup of coffee.

Jude was a great helper!

Andrew and Jude spent a little time catching up on the latest Newsweek…

And now the Little One is down for a nap and I’m off to catch up on some reading of my own and watch the snow fall. Happy Saturday!

*Click here for Orange Chocolate Muffins recipe: (more…)

My favorite winter comfort food has to be home made chicken & veggie pot pie from scratch. I made it the other night for the boys and I. It would be a great vegetarian meal too if you swapped the chicken stock and milk for a rich vegetable broth sauce and omitted the chicken.

I make the crust using half whole wheat flour and half white flour. (I adapted it from a basic recipe in one of my cookbooks) I dice and boil some potatoes until tender; cut up chicken that I’ve sauteed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and a bit of water to keep moist; make a garlicky white sauce with low sodium chicken stock or veggie broth, milk, salt, pepper and garlic. After putting the bottom crust in a pie pan or casserole dish I layer potatoes, chicken, frozen mixed veggies, (peas, carrots, beans, etc.) sprinkle with pepper, celery salt and/or garlic salt, parsley, and coriander, then pour some white sauce over the top and layer the rest of the ingredients, topping with more seasonings and sauce. The top crust goes on, and I bake it for about 50 minutes at 400 degrees. YUM!

The kitchen was a total mess but it was worth it. I also made some ‘crescents’ from the leftover dough that were a favorite of my Papa when he was a kid. His mom would roll out the bits of dough that were left and cut them into triangles, brushing with melted butter and sprinkling with cinnamon and sugar. She rolled them up and baked them in the already hot oven. Very tasty.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while,
but here’s a picture of my Christmas present to Jude:

I made these little elephants out of felt and stitched on beads
for the eyes.

They hang in his room as a mobile and remind
me of our trip to Thailand when the three of us went riding
on an elephant through the jungle!

I picked up a book recently from Barnes & Nobles called Fun Dolls that has all kinds of fun ideas for projects to make…as well as hilarious captions throughout the book. My next project is a set of 3 stuffed felt cars for Jude to play with- I’ll show them when they’re done.

Check out Andrew’s blog for a video he took in the snow a few evenings ago- a glimpse of our winter wonderland. It was 8 degrees out when we left the house this morning- just a bit chilly!:)

…Then make yourself a cup of hot tea, turn on your favorite music, and start heating the oven! I have a yummy and healthy Apple Muffin recipe that is a great snack or quick breakfast.

I usually gather and measure out most of my ingredients into 2 bowls (wet and dry separately) before preheating the oven…
Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbs milk
1/4 cup oil
1 large egg
1/4 cup agave* (or 1/2 cup white sugar if you don’t have agave)
1 tsp molasses (optional but good for you!)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour (or white if you prefer)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 & a 1/2 cups chopped apple (I like tart apples in mine!)

Set oven to 375 degrees. Stir all wet ingredients together in one bowl (adding chopped apple last), and dry ingredients into another. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray or line with muffin cups. Gently combine wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Divide batter into cups and bake for about 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack and enjoy with a drizzle of honey if they aren’t sweet enough for your taste, or as is! The house will smell yummy too.

Jude gives them the taste test!:)

*Agave is a natural sweetener from a plant grown in Mexico (usually organically grown) with a low glycemic index, so your body takes longer to burn it off, unlike white table sugar which gives you a ’sugar high’ and then your blood sugar crashes. I’ve been experimenting with it in recipes with great results.