Awesome (healthy) muffins!

There's a really great recipe called Ruthie's 8 Grain Muffins, which comes on the back of a Bob's Red Mill package of 8 grain hot cereal. I've adapted the recipe for people who can't access Bob's stuff, and I've made it a little healthier by substituting butter for margarine and white whole wheat flour (no, it's not bleached -- just a softer winter wheat variety) for the white flour. You can also use whole wheat pastry flour, but it'll be pretty crumbly. If you can only access regular whole wheat flour, try it and let me know how it goes. Actually, maybe I'll try it and I'll let you know. The whole wheat flours do make the light, tender muffins a little sturdier. I was tired of cleaning up piles of crumbs after my toddler.

I think these are the perfect healthy muffins. Let me know what you think.

Awesome (healthy) muffins

1. Turn your oven on to 400 degrees.
2. Mix the following ingredients and let sit for 10 minutes (you can do the other steps in the meanwhile):
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup cornmeal (at any supermarket)
1/4 cup almond meal (grind your own or buy at Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup flaxseed meal (I think you can find this at TJ's)
1/4 cup oat bran (can find at TJ's)
3. In a larger bowl, melt 1/3 cup of butter, using electric mixer, mix in 1/2 cup of Turbinado or regular granulated sugar, add 1 egg, and mix again.
4. Sift the following ingredients in a medium bowl:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of white whole wheat flour
5. Add ingredients from step 4 to step 3. Mix.
6. Add ingredients from step 2 to step 5. Mix.
7. Spoon batter into 12 paper muffin cups that have been placed in a muffin tin.
8. Pop into oven for 15 minutes.
9. Gobble them up!

[Note: I accidentally left out the baking powder, baking soda, and the salt one time (I know, I think I was over-multi-tasking and sleep-deprived) but the kids still loved it -- and a playdate friend as well!]

Maylin's first compilation CD

For one of Maylin's birthday presents, I put together a CD of her favorite songs downloaded from amazon.com. She picked all the songs herself. It was wonderful to see how happy she was to hear her own CD. Such joy! That was the best $13 I ever spent!

1. Axel F (Crazy Frog version)
2. Who Left the Dogs Out
3. Everybody Dance Now
4. Lollipop (that old doo-wap song)
5. Don't Walk Away (a Hanna Montana tune she heard on the plane)
6. Good Morning Baltimore (Hairspray musical)
7. I Can Hear the Bells (Hairspray)
8. Without Love (Hairspray)
9. That's How You Know (Enchanted movie)
10. Ever Ever After (Enchanted)
11. Axel F (original)

Homeschooling a success so far

Well, I realize I haven't really talked about homeschooling much in my blog (maybe I haven't been talking much about anything at all, really), but just so you know, it is really going great. Maylin and I are a good pair for this -- she's a good student and listens to me (most of the time) and when I'm prepared, weeks are great. When someone's sick, things slow down, but we make up for it on the weekends. We have a very flexible schedule. Sometimes Maylin will do some work in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some in the evening. She is often motivated by 10-minute bites of a movie. 2 pages of math will earn her 10 minutes of watching. A writing worksheet earn the same as well. A chess game counts, too. Maylin gets the most work done using this reward system.

Our language arts work is all over the place. We'll have spelling tests, phonics worksheets, reading, story-writing, book-making, writing games...mixing it up seems to be key. Our math curriculum is Singapore Math. Maylin's almost done with her first book -- her big reward is a scooter. Sometimes she likes math, sometimes she doesn't. I still need to figure that piece out.

For science, we'll do experiments using household products like baking soda, borax, and vinegar. I usually have her write up a report afterwards. Fortunately, she still says she loves science. Oh, we also work through the Evan-Mohr books. We're in the vertebrate book presently -- it has great worksheets and lesson plans. I've woven in trips to the Oakland Zoo and the Natural History Museum (NY) to supplement the unit study. And soon, we'll visit some week-old puppies to help study the life cycle of vertebrates.

Social studies has included map-study, worksheets, and journal-writing after trips. I need to work more on integrating this into our daily studies.

Maylin also takes Chinese, French, piano, chess, and karate. I'm teaching her the piano, but it's hard because she doesn't have much interest in it. But that karate...she loves it. It's the perfect activity for her. She likes working hard, doesn't mind repetition, and is good at memorizing a series of steps (forms). I'm quite proud of her. She'll be testing for her yellow belt soon.

I'm not worried about her not getting enough socialization -- she has plenty of opportunity in her extracurricular activities.

Some great online resources that Maylin likes to use:
http://chess.math.com/ (so she can always have the computer to play against)
http://www.typingweb.com/ (a free site for learning how to type -- she's already learned homerow and the top row -- her accuracy is quite good...and she loves it!)

Little furry bundle of joy

We've got a new puppy! I know, our wonderful dog Leo passed away recently, but Maylin was just crazy about getting a new puppy. Everyday she voiced her wishes. I thought it wouldn't hurt to look online. Found a great site, petfinders.com, which I believe specializes in rescue dogs because they were mostly mixes. You can do an advanced search by breed (mix), sex, age, and location. Our puppy was being fostered in Richmond, so it happened really quickly! I e-mailed our adoption application Wednesday night, the family met the puppy at his former home Thursday night, we got to take him Friday night for a short trial period, made our decision right away and turned in our paperwork today. I can't imagine how lucky we are! It was fate.

We are in love! Cody's a golden retriever-Australian shepherd mix (I was specifically looking for a retriever-shepherd because that's pretty much what Leo was -- we like that kind of temperament and look.

He is about 3 months old, tan and white, and is a real sweetie. Very obedient and learns quickly. He's only had a few accidents so far.

Let's hope I can get a photo up before he grows out of puppyhood!

Natural cleaning, part I

Maylin had a little science lesson today as I tried to get a blood stain out of some bedsheets (Stefan had a bloody nose one night). I hate using chemical treatments, so I thought I'd experiment with baking soda and vinegar. Maylin spread a layer of baking soda over the stain and then dumped some vinegar over it. We got some fantastic bubbles going! Stefan loved it! We repeated this many, many times, to the delight of my kids. And you know what? It did a pretty good job on the stain. It didn't completely eliminate it, but it's barely there now after a tumble in the washer and dryer! We called this experiment Bubble Action. We're going to see if this same method will work on our old carpet stains. Woohoo!

I'm back!

We had a long trip to Ohio, Rhode Island, and New York, with the kids in tow. A couple days after we got back, I got sick. Now John and Maylin are sick. Stefan's got a little cough -- hoping that it doesn't develop into what the rest of us have...he's had it so rough, with the scarlet fever right before our trip.

I've got a lot of photos to post, which means it's going to take awhile until I get them all up. Maybe I should post in bite-size pieces. I have this problem of inaction when I get overwhelmed by the size of a task.

The Rhode Island bit of the trip was really inspiring for me. We were at Rhode Island School of Design for John's 20th grad school reunion. Just being surrounded by artists and designers was exhilirating! The positive comments from artists/designers that I got on the name tag I hand-lettered (darn, I left it somewhere), the book I made (in a kids' art workshop), and a drawing I made for Stefan on a dinner table (papered at a restaurant) made me really proud. They asked if I was an artist! I don't feel that same pride when people ask me if I'm a musician. So I think I'm going down the right path as a visual artist. I have a lot of work to do, but it'll be such a fun process. Also, I met some great artists at the RISD Art Sale, and realized that I felt so at home with these people. I felt like this was my community -- the community I wanted to be in. Yes.

Gotta go. Stefan just woke up from his nap, unhappy.

Sorry I don't have new photos up

Our external hard drive went kaput. Yes, that's right. All of our precious photos are inaccessible at the moment, but hopefully not lost forever. And this happens just in time -- I was just about to make some photo books, post our Hawaii photos, share camp photos...waaah!

Stefan speaks!

Stefan was off to a slow start speaking, but I wasn't ever really concerned, though other people, including our pediatrician, were. Now, he's coming up with so many words each day. Today, he surprised me with "pink" when he pointed to his oil pastel (he also said "orange," but he's done that before). And yes, give your kids good art supplies now. Crayons are boring and pretty colorless compared to pastels, markers, and good colored pencils (Prismacolor are my favorites -- pricey, but check clearance sections in art stores). Anyways, Stefan also can recognize and recite eight letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1,2,4,5, and 8. When I'm homeschooling Maylin, he will often repeat what Maylin is spelling or reciting. How exciting! I know some kids Stefan's age are probably already speaking full sentences, but I'm not worried. Stefan can point to and say "steam" and recognize a multitude of objects, including construction equipment and vegetation. He also says "engine" for fire engine. Too cute!

Butternut Squash Bisque (an elegant soup)

A beautiful and delicious orange-colored soup. Use a good bread knife (serrated for trimming the skin off the squash and cutting it into rough cubes).

Version from 9/20/09

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized butternut squash (about 1.5 lbs.), cut into rough 1/2-inch cubes
2 T butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
3-5 cups hot chicken broth
1/4-1/2 t. ground white pepper
salt
extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 cups water
chives, finely chopped, for garnish (the tiny, tubular kind, not garlic chives)
sour cream (optional)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onion and cook until softened (try not to brown), about 5 minutes. Add butternut squash, 3 cups chicken broth, and 1/4 t. white pepper. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes until tender. Let cool slightly. Transfer half to food processor and puree. Pour into large bowl. Puree remainder and pour back into pot. Add first half to pot. You may need to add 1-2 more cups of chicken broth if it's too thick. You can refrigerate and serve the next day. I served the same day. Before serving, bring to boil again, reduce heat and simmer for a little bit. At this point, I add a little olive oil to make it shiny and smooth, add water as necessary (I don't want it to be a squash puree, but a soup consistency). Add up to 1/4 t. more of the white pepper if you can't taste it, and salt, if necessary. Serve with an optional dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of the chives. Gorgeous!

Pan-Roasted Veggie Lasagna Recipe

This recipe was requested by a friend. I used the lasagna and Italian tomato sauce recipes from Mollie Katzen's The New Moosewood Cookbook as the basis for this recipe. Major difference is that her veggies were not pan-roasted which is why I think she adds honey to her sauce. I will omit the honey next time, since the pan-roasting sweetens the vegetables. Also, with this recipe, feel free to oven-roast the vegetables and make any necessary substitutions. I substitute ALL the time.

Let's start with the sauce. (As with any recipe, read through BEFORE proceeding).

Pan-Roasted Veggie Tomato Sauce (this version made 9/20/09)

Full of flavor and slightly sweet -- you won't miss the meat!

Ingredients:

2 red bell peppers, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
about 6 organic fancy zucchini (the small ones)
about 1 lb. medium white mushrooms, thinly sliced
about 6 organic fancy zucchini (the small ones)
1 yellow onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
handful of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped
handful of fresh basil, finely chopped
6 organic dry-farmed tomatoes (small), roughly chopped
2 cans of organic diced tomatoes (or one large 28 oz. can)
1 can of tomato paste
1 T. honey (I'll leave out next time)
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
4 t. dried basil
freshly ground pepper
very fine garlic powder (I can only find this as Costco -- the stuff usually found in the supermarket is too coarse and doesn't taste fresh)
1-4 cups of water

Directions:

Okay, this is a bit labor intensive, but I think, is worth it. Oven-roasting may be much faster as you'll probably be able to fit more veggies in your oven at one time than you can in a skillet. Try 400 degrees for 20-40 minutes, until slightly browned (or charred).

I pan-roasted the veggies individually because over-crowding in your pan will prevent the ingredients from browning -- they'll just end up sitting in a wet soup. Put about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in your skillet (I happened to use a Dutch oven) and cook one of your bell peppers over medium high heat. Add a little salt and garlic powder halfway through. Cook until browning starts happening. Remove to a large bowl. Do the same with the other bell peppers. Do the same with 3 zucchini at a time. Then, do the same with the onion and mushrooms (I threw them in together for no real reason -- to save time, maybe? maybe the pan-roasting thing was getting a little old?). Keeping the onion and mushrooms in the pan (oh wait, these guys didn't get the garlic powder treatment, but I did add the dried basil, fresh basil, and parsley here, before doing the next step), add back the other veggies, the canned tomatoes, the fresh tomatoes, the tomato paste, the honey (if you want), and 1-2 cups of water (to your liking since it will depend on how juicy your tomatoes are -- the dry-farmed ones are sweet and flavorful, and not watery like typical salad tomatoes).

Stir, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Season as desired with salt and pepper. Add the garlic and simmer for 10 more minutes. You're done! I put it in the fridge after cooling since I was doing my lasagna assembly the next day.

Lasagna assembly:

Ingredients:

12 lasagna noodles (I used De Cecco, but usually use Barilla), uncooked
2 cups organic lowfat cottage cheese (one container)
1 lb. grated mozarella
nearly all of the sauce above

Heat oven to 375 degrees. (I reheated my sauce on the stove, thinking it would help the noodles cook faster. Also, I added 1-2 cups more water because the sauce was looking too thick.) In a 9x13 dish (mine was glass and slightly bigger by a half-inch on both sides), put a little bit of the sauce. Lay down four noodles, put down half of the cottage cheese on top -- in blobs, about a third of the sauce, and then a third of the mozarella. Another four noodles, the rest of the cottage cheese, a third of the sauce, and then a third of the mozarella. The last four noodles, followed by the sauce and the mozarella (I omitted the parmesan because I forgot to buy it!).

Place in oven, loosely covered with foil, for 40 minutes. Then, remove the foil, raise the temperature to 425 degrees, and bake for another 10 minutes. It should brown nicely on top and be bubbly throughout (I had to turn mine around because the front wasn't bubbling -- oven cooler in the front). Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing and enjoying!

The assembly is fun if you do all the hard work, meaning, the sauce, the day before.