Perfect days

Perfection is subjective, but for us, at this time in the year, I think we had just about the perfect weekend. But, there are two funny things with this: one, we didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but the time just felt perfect. Two, Dave was gone for the whole weekend. I feel so bad saying that, and it certainly was not part of the perfection of the time. It would have been better if he were here, none the less, we had a great weekend! Please don't judge me...

Corrina and I hit our children's museum on Friday morning. We decided to buy a membership pass because they are very well priced. I think we have payed it off already with the 3 or 4 times we've been. At this age Corrina just doesn't get bored with it. In fact, she get's more excited about it every time we go. Love that!

I think the most perfect thing was making it through the grocery store without any fits or run aways. Corrina is the type of gal who just loves a good chase. It's just thrilling to her, and once she gets going she is the hardest little thing to catch because she's pretty sure it's a game, right down to the very upset momma assuring her that I do not feel the same way. But, this did not happen on our last shopping trip, and I still can't believe it. After helping me bag all the produce, she walked along, holding the side of the cart for the rest of the grocery trip. I'm sure she was sick of hearing me say "Corrina, it's good that you are holding the cart while we shop! I feel happy when you hold on and stay close." (They say praise the good behaviour you want to see more than the bad you don't want. She doesn't like this change, it's just not as thrilling at the troubmle attention, which means it works!) Anyway, I am defining moments like that as making my weekend perfect!

On Saturday night we had our little friend and his family over for an impromptu birthday dinner for him, and my gosh was it delicious. I made my own ricotta cheese for a roasted vegtable lasagne. We followed this up with the most amazing carrot cake I've ever had, topped with whipped cream-cream cheese frosting. The cake recipe came from my looney spoons cook books, which if you haven't checked out (ie. read, or checked-out from the library, either one) after hearing me rant about them for at least 3 posts, than I don't know what to say to you. Maybe I'm doing a bad job at convincing you... you tell me! Anyway, lovely super, lovely cake, and here are a few recipes.

Ricotta Cheese
2L Milk (whole, 2 %, I used 1%)
1 cup heavey cream (whipping cream, 35%)
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lemon juice
Mix together first three ingredients in sauce pot over moderate heat until this comes to a rolling boil. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. This can take a long time if you're bringing it up to a boil slowly. Be patient, it will pay off. Once boiling, add lemon juice. Reduce heat to low, and stir for 2-5 minutes, until the mixture has curdled. Line a sieve with cheese cloth, or thin, clean, tea towel, and place over a bowl to catch the drippings/whey/butter milk. Slowly pour all contents from pot into lined sieve, and allowed to strain until all liquid has dripped through. In the sieve you have your ricotta cheese, and in the bowl you have buttermilk. Ricotta cheese lasts for 2-3 days. Not sure about the holding time for the butter milk.

(I think we are eating yogurt on our valentines pancakes, so it relates!)

Hope you get a chance to try this out. I loved the results, plus the money saved (at least here in MB, ricotta cheese is ridiculously expensive). I am still meaning to make yogurt, (or here) but keep forgetting to buy a thermometer to get the temps right. I don't have a yogurt machine to keep things at a consistent temp, but I have read some different ideas about ways to incubate the yogurt. I have one friend who rigs up her crock pot in a funny way to create her own yogurt maker machine. Might try that, or this. Yogurt making, and maybe ricotta cheese making too, seem like the easiest homemade things to do in the WORLD. If only I had a cow, I would be set! But then, it wouldn't be so easy, would it!? (I heard on the radio that someone has combined !? into it's own punctuation mark called the interrobang... what do you think? )



Dave gave me a beautiful, fragrant hyacinth earlier this week. It has fully blossomed and is such a lovely reminder that in certain places of the country many people are about to enjoy the new life of spring. We won't for a more months outside, but at least I can enjoy the colors and smells in my kitchen!

I think the weekend will end in perfect as well, when Dave returns home tonight (and I have to shove him off because I am working on my overdue homework!) At least he will be home.
Ha, gotta love life!

I'm pretty sure that Corrina believes she runs an orphanage most days. Like many little people, girls and boys alike, Corrina loves to play with other children, alive or plastic. Her favorite thing is to put them to sleep. She lines them up, pats their backs, sings songs, reads book, and then gets comfortable and sits to make sure they stay asleep. Dave got caught up in the fun this one afternoon, and like any good little baby he had a nice long nap while Corrina and I moved onto more important things like hanging pictures and making music. Who says only deaf babies sleep through loud noises!
We have made it out ice skating on the world's longest river trail only once this year. Corrina did very well on her skates, and managed to hold her own weight most of the time. She tried gliding on her own, which of course looked more like a walk-shuffle-fall, but she tried it on her own!


We have officially declared Monday to be Soup Day at our house. We have so many things going on that day, with different people coming and going at different times thus needing to eat at different times. I was tired of trying to squeeze in a super time, so we just decided on take-it-when-you-need-it soup. We have tried tons of fantastic soup recipes, mostly from this book (so I don't think I can write them out here, copy right laws and all). This just might be the best change we have made this winter. I want more soup nights! Easy to prepare, nutritious, mostly light on the budget, and comfortingly warm.
Just last night I made a Roasted sweet potatoe with ginger and orange soup. We made sour cream heart designs in the thick, flavorful puree.
I think my favorite so far has been a soup called Thai One On. It has lots of vegtables, including sweet potatoes (did you know the Canadian food guide recommends eating at least one serving of an orange vegtable and one of a dark green every day. That's hard to do some days, but not with soup!) red peppers, celery, coconut milk, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, some pureed, some left chunky. To finish it off you add shrimp! Wow, this is the most delicious (and one of the more costly) soups we've made! If you have the Eat, Shrink, and be Merry cookbook, you'll find this recipe there. If you are just dying to know how to make this, leave me a comment and I can email you the recipe.
So, if you are making soup, you most definately need to have some sort of warm bread to accompany it. Sometimes we make our own Tortilla dippers by cutting up flat bread, brushing it with a mixture of 1tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp butter mixed with garlic and herbs, and baking the pieces at 350 for 10 minutes. Amazing! Other times we just grab buns from our local organic bakery. And of course, when time allows, we mix up our own home made biscuits.
But, you see, I've always struggled with biscuits. I either don't like them because they are all white flour, have too much butter and fat, come out tasting like baking powder, are just a little too crunchy, or are perfect and soft on the outside, but soggy in the middle. Wow, it must sound like I am an awful buscuit maker! Some days I am, most days it's just the refined aspects of buscuits that gets me down. But, turning again to our faithful friends Janet and Greta, Corrina and I wiped up what will now be the go-to buscuit recipe in our home. This one I will share...with full credits to Crazy Plates cookbook.
Takin' Care of Biscuits (melt in your mouth whole wheat and cheddar biscuits)
Preheat oven to 425
Gather all children who enjoy dumping, stirring, rolling, cutting and making a mess

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix this together in a large bowl
Stir in 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (i used parmesan because we were out of cheddar)

Using a pastry cutter, or your fingers:
cut in 3 tbsp butter of margarine

Next combine:
1 cup buttermilk (to make mix 1 tbsp lemon juice and fill remaining space in measuring cup up to the 1 cup mark with milk)
1 tsp honey


Add this to dry ingredients. Using a fork stir to form a soft dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, form into a ball, and roll out to 3/4 inch. Cut into circle (or hearts!). Place onto sprayed cookie sheet. bake for 10-12 minutes or until biscuits have puffed up and are golden.
These biscuits turn out very soft and moist, almost like a freshly made bun, while at the same time retaining the ease and size of a biscuit!