taking the easy way

I like to do a dedicated windy post once a week, but I need to cheat a little this week and pull some posts from my own notebook to make the Saturday post. I have a lot to get done. This is a roundup of activities from the last month. They were all to varying degrees of success because, to tell you the truth, my son is on strike against hats this week and bits of my home that used to be not sky blue are sky blue. But on the other hand, we've had much more drawing and painting this week and tried some new activities. And the days are getting longer.

rainbow bread

A few months ago Auggie found a video about baking rainbow bread on youtube. It’s a pretty long cooking demonstration — I never would have guessed he would find it so interesting, but he asked for it a few times. So we finally decided to try making it. The recipe in the video requires kneading and uses all the colours of the rainbow. Since we didn’t have the time or patience to do a long recipe, we did a much easier version using less colours and no-knead bread... read more

the easiest pancake

Maybe I will dedicate this pancake to Tulip the Buffalo. Snowy & Chinook already have their favourite recipes for pancakes, but this is such a fantastic recipe and so puffy and simple (and good with berries) that maybe it's perfect for Tulip via endless banquet ... read more

kindergarten hat from pickles

I made this little hat (another one from pickles) from their kindergarten set. The pattern is great and simple and good for using up scraps of yarn... read more

snowy cocoa

Here are two recipes for cocoa from Snowy & Chinook, one with solid chocolate, Melty Chinook Hot Chocolate, and and one with cocoa, Snowy's Cocoa. We like the cocoa for breakfast sometimes. Have it with some healthy breakfast gingerbread and it's perfect for a chilly morning.

squash soup

Oof, I've been trying to finish up another children's scarf pattern, but I misjudged the length, so it won't be ready for another week.

In the meantime, I thought I'd put up this really, really fantastic squash soup recipe from Jeanette Ordas of everybody likes sandwiches at poppytalk. This soup has a number of great things about it:

1. it's really, really good
2. it's not sweet
3. it's fast and uses frozen squash (it is very good to cook with small children, just keep them away from the peppers — measuring the frozen squash and chopping peeled apples under supervision are a lot of fun).

It has only one bad thing which is that it's a little spicy for a child. What I do is cook most of the spicy spices separately. It's quite easy and just means there's an extra saucepan to wash up at the end.

First, see the recipe here at poppytalk.

My modifications + tip for cooking with spicy peppers around small children and babies:

noodles, knits

This week: noodles and knitting.

Watermelon stars

A nice and cool snack for a beach picnic: slices of watermelon + cookie cutter = watermelon stars. Watermelons punch out shapes cleanly, and they'll hold the shape and juiciness more than a day. Summer's almost over, you have to slurp it up quick!

mix mix rice

We took home a book from the library recently that really caught Auggie's imagination, which was Bee Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park. The story is about making bibimbap (which she calls mix mix rice because you mix everything up at the end) for dinner. At the end of the book is Linda's family's recipe, split into tasks for a child and an adult. We copied the steps in the book, going shopping for the ingredients and making the dish together. Auggie was really enthusiatic for all the steps, especially mixing up the ingredients at the end in his dinner plate. He wasn't so interested in really eating much of it. However, that is true of all non-noodle food and he has been more into rice, since. It was fun and maybe another little step towards being a less picky eater (sheesh). I found a simplified vegetarian recipe, Vegetable Bibimbap, via pinterest as well.

Hot lemon drink for a spring cold

Every few months someone I know has a cold and this recipe, from an old Martha Stewart is the recipe I want to give them. The recipe isn't online (until now, I guess).

First my (lazy) version and then the original. The lazy one is good for sick people bumping around the kitchen. The ginger simple syrup from the original is a nice get-well gift for an ill one.

sandwiches

These are some recipes from the "fun to cook cookbook". The checkerboard sandwiches and radish roses are nostalgic for me. I remember being taught to make those in cookery, too.

Overnight French Toast with Panettone (or without)

Last year, I put in Snowy & Chinook's recipe for pancakes, from Snowy & Chinook.

This year, I'll give you my favourite breakfast recipe. This is my version of Overnight French Toast: French toast you make the night before and then bake in the oven in the morning. This is a very kid-friendly recipe, both preparing and eating.

Sunday honey

After the Easter eggs have all been dyed and hunted, you might be looking for something to do? If you have any food colouring left, you might make "Colored Honey" from the Pooh Cook Book, a very old, loved and used (as you can see) book from our shelf.

Ingredients: honey and vegetable food colouring.

Only use a tiny bit, especially if you are using red dye, which can add a little bit of flavour if you add too much.You might use a dipped toothpick to transfer the colouring to the honey.

This would be nice on leftover hot cross buns tomorrow morning, don't you think?

Foggy's Figgy Muesli

Now that we've revealed the answer to "what is Foggy's favourite thing to eat for breakfast?", we thought we would share his breakfast recipe with you. Cloud also contributed his recipe for Cloudy Muesli.

The recipe is uploaded as a PDF. Please let us know if you have any trouble downloading it.

Thanks again to Chef Heidi for her help in editing Cloud and Foggy's recipes.

Sunday morning pancakes

While we're on the subject of breakfast, we thought it would be a good time to put up Snowy and Chinook's recipes for pancakes (PDF link).

As we're still finding our feet with blogging, please let us know if you have any trouble accessing the link.