Birthday Boy

In all the posting about our trip, I didn't want to leave out the Birthday Boy! The trip was our main celebration, but while in Nauvoo Brad got to open his gifts: a much needed watch and socks! He also got a birthday candle on his English muffin =).



Once home on Monday, I made his favorite cake ever - it's the cake that made him fall in love with me I think! Back in our early dating days at BYU, I wanted to make him something special for his birthday... I had no idea if he liked carrot cake, but it's the only thing I knew how to make from "scratch." I even tracked down a wheat grinder and some whole wheat to make the flour... nowadays I just buy whole wheat flour at the store (I didn't know you could back then... that's how much I knew about cooking!). Eli and Owen both sang "Happy Birthday" in the most adorable fashion, and helped blow out the candles. We all LOVE Daddy here at our house, and enjoyed having a special day for him!

Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C Brown Sugar
Almost 1 C Honey
1 C Oil *(I used 1/2 Cup oil and added 1/4 Cup milled Flax Seed)
1/3 C or less Water
2 tsp Baking Soda
*2 tsp Baking Powder
*1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
3 Cups Grated Carrot (I did heaping cups, so over 3 1/2 cups total)
4 Eggs
*2 tsp Vanilla

Cream together wet ingredients in one bowl. Mix dry in another. Blend together and add carrot. Bake in greased pan at 350 for 45 minutes. Cake is very soft and moist, but with a gritty
"whole grain" texture to it!

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 C Powdered Sugar (I used about 1 Cup - I like it more cheesy)
8 oz Cream Cheese softened (I use Neufchatel)
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 Stick Butter softened

*Cake is my Mom's original recipe... items marked with * are changes I have made.

Easter Breakfast

Whole Wheat, Flax and Honey Waffles

1/2 C Whole White Wheat Flour
1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 Tbs Honey
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Egg
1 C Milk
2 Tbs Oil
Add a couple Tbs of milled flax seed, or replace 1 Tbs of oil with 3 Tbs of flax seed.

Make into pancakes or waffles and top with *honey-cream and fresh berries.
Serve with Turkey Bacon.

Honey Cream

Heavy Whipping Cream in amount desired (1/2 pint?)
Honey to taste (1 Tbs or so)
*Whip as usual on high with whisk beater.

Pesto

Thank you, friends for the Pesto recipes! I spent the better part of an entire day last week harvesting and plucking the basil, and whipping up a TON of pesto! Our freezer is FULL! I even left a bit to keep growing so I can use it in other dishes. For some reason I thought that I didn't like pesto, but I must not have ever really tried it, because it's yummy, and it sure makes the house smell good while you're making it! We've had it on pasta, so now I've got to try it as a pizza sauce and a dip for bread... any other ideas?

The Harvest

Plucking Leaves

Garbage Bouquet
The Dish: Whole Wheat Penne, Red Potatoes, Fresh Green Beans and Pesto!

Recipe I used:

Makes 1 1/4 cups; Prep time: 15 minutes; Total time: 20 minutes

½ cup pine nuts or walnuts

4 cups loosely packed fresh basil or parsley leaves

½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

1 garlic clove

Salt and pepper

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spread nuts on a rimmed baking sheet; toast in oven until golden and fragrant, tossing occasionally, 5 to 8 minutes. Let cool completely.

2. In a food processor, combine toasted nuts, basil, Parmesan, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Process until finely chopped. With machine running, pour olive oil in a steady stream through the feed tube; process until smooth.

Note: If not using immediately, the sauce should be refrigerated; cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the sauce to preserve the bright color. This sauce will keep for up to three days.

Yum

I'm really not much of a cook. In fact, it's downright laughable that I am even attempting to post about food I have created, but then again you can't grow unless you stretch yourself, right? I have never really enjoyed cooking, but I DO enjoy eating tasty, healthy food. AND we've had access to some fresh garden goodness this summer, so I've been experimenting. I should post each of these separately, but that would take forever, so here you go.

Veggie Pasta

While boiling up the whole wheat pasta, I cooked up some garlic and onion in a skillet with olive oil, then added a cucumber (would also be great with zuchinni) and grape tomatoes until they were just warm and tender - not soggy. Then I tossed in some fresh basil. Added sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Ate it with Pumpernickle bread and hummus. Brad asked me to make it again!

Bella-Burgers

Marinated a couple of GIANT portobella mushrooms in some soy sauce, fresh minced garlic, and cracked black pepper (would have been good with some EVOO as well but I forgot to add it). Grilled on my little foreman. Topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, spicy mustard. Thick and hearty - nice alternative to ground beef!

Zuchinni Bread

I forgot to take pictures of the bread. The squash pictured were given to me by my neighbor - they're HUGE! I had ONE like that from my garden before the bugs killed it - and that one alone yielded 8 CUPS of shredded zuchinni. I made 3 dozen muffins and a loaf (from just the one zuchinni!) with a recipe from this blog . I adapted it by using half whole wheat flour and a little less sugar. It was great!

Brad's 30th

I already mentioned that we went to NYC for Brad's 30th. We also had a little get together for him at the house when we got back. Our friends the Woodwards were in town packing up their house for the big move out West (we sure miss them!), so they came over along with the Joyners from our ward. We had some yummy Chocolate 'n' Cherries cake. We're so glad our friends could celebrate with us!

Eli had fun helping to blow out the candles, and he was convinced they were edible. Brad found him in the kitchen after we all had cake trying to eat the #0 candle - he took a big old bite out of it! We finally got around to opening gifts the next day (Eli also volunteered himself to help with that) and Brad was very pleased to get some new shoes for work from his folks, Encycolpedia of Nutritional Healing from my folks, an Ipod armband from the boys, and some Keen sandals from me.

Brad is definitely the most HANDSOME 30 year old I've ever come across... Love you honey!

Chocolate 'n' Cherries Cake

1 - chocolate fudge (or dark chocolate) cake mix
1 - can chocolate fudge (or dark chocolate) frosting
1 - can cherry pie filling
1- dark chocolate Hershey's bar

*Prepare cake according to directions for two 9 inch rounds.
Layer with frosting in the middle, then frost all around.
Top and garnish with cherry filling.
Use veggie peeler to make chocolate curls from the Hershey's bar
and sprinkle on top.
Yummy, easy, and voila!

Dinner Time!

We've been eating a lot of breakfast foods for dinner lately - namely pancakes and french toast. Why? Because it is one thing that my *selective* toddler will eat with relish. And he likes to help make it too. Heaven forbid that I whisk together the eggs and pumpkin (I make healthy versions) by myself. If he even catches a glimpse of a wire whisk, he's right on top of it. It makes the clean up a little more interesting, but we're cooking up memories along with our dinner. Since I'm usually working on dinner before Brad gets home, and dinnertime happens to be a fussy time for my youngest, he gets strapped on my back for the activity.

1 "worn" baby + 1 whisking toddler + 1 disheveled mommy = good food and fun!

The other night Eli had a major sobbing tantrum just before dinner, and we soon discovered why. He inhaled most of his pancakes, but then just couldn't quite make it to the last bite. He passed out in mid-bite... completely ASLEEP sitting up with the fork halfway to his mouth!!! He sat there with his head-bobbing for a few minutes while we video-taped him. It was hi-la-ri-ous!!!! We started getting worried that he was going to hit his head on the table, so we took him up to bed. Well the stinker woke right up and wouldn't go back to sleep for another three hours... it was worth the laughs though!

YUMO:

Pumpkin Pancakes
1 C whole wheat pastry flour - 3/4 C unbleached white flour
1 Tbs baking powder - 1/2 tsp salt (I omitted)
2 tsp cinnamon -1/2 tsp ground ginger -1/4 tsp allspice - 1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1 C pureed pumpkin or winter squash
1 tsp vanilla
2 C milk
3 Tbs canola oil

Stir (and sift) together all the dry ingredients in a med. size
bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs with the pumpkin & vanilla.
Beat in the milk & oil until smooth. Add to flour mixture. Cook as usual! These smelled *wonderful* while cooking....like Christmas! SOURCE: "Beyond the
Moon" cookbook by Ginny Callan **Freezes Well**

http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/toddlerbreakfast.htm