Well, we are up to 19 inches of snow here in ruralburbia of Seattle!
It has been fun to return to a simpler time by this forced slow down. We live close enough to the business district of our town that we have been able to walk down to Main Street and avoid feeling housebound. A few days ago I met up with a good friend for a latte and some stocking stuffer shopping. As a family, we have pulled the kids by sled into town and enjoyed a yummy Mexican dinner and some grocery shopping. Walking home with groceries in hand, I was comforted by fond childhood memories of Detroit. We had many a White Christmas there and it is nice to think that my own children are building their own Christmas memories with snow adventures too.
My hubby and I have spent lots of time relaxing in the jacuzzi with a good wheat beer in hand watching the snow gently fall and of course, we have all done lots of baking! Today we decided to roll out some holiday cheer toward our Jack Russell Terrier and bake her some Peanut Butter Bisquits.
Here are some highlights from our snow and doggy bisquit adventures. The recipe we used is at the end of the post, in case you feel inspired to bake some for your favorite canine pal(s).
from The Original Gourmet Doggie Treat Cook Book:
Peanut Butter Bisquits
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, wheat germ, and salt in a large bowl. Mix in peanut butter, egg, oil and water.
Roll dough out onto lightly floured surface to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out bisquits with a cookie cutter.
Transfer bisquits to an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 15 to 25 minutes for small (1") bisquits and 30 to 35 minutes for large (3") bisquits.
Transfer to rack to cool. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate.
As a little girl I have fond memories of my Grandma Rose baking an assortment of cookies around Christmas time and packaging them up in fancy tins to give to family & friends. Many were from recipes that were passed down from her Croatian ancestors, never written down, just actively shared from generation to generation. I would watch her in the kitchen, amazed at how she knew these recipes by heart. One of my favorites to help her with were the thumbprint cookies because I got to stick my thumb right in the center of small balls of cookie dough and then fill them with jam.
Recently, I attended a natural foods baking class with my kids and we made a cookie that was similar to my grandma's thumbprint cookie. The difference was that we created a deeper well for the jam and the name was changed to "Jewel Cookies" because the finished result looked like a sparkling ruby or topaz depending on the jam used.
Last night I took inspiration from both my Grandma and the kid's baking class to create a new recipe which I call Vegan Jewel Cookies. It's grandma's recipe gone vegan...and princess!
These cookies even received a second place nod at our neighborhood holiday party cookie contest last night - woo hoo!
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c sugar
1/2 cup melted vegan margarine
1/3 cup soymilk ( I used plain, but vanilla would be great too!)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. almond extract
your choice of jam for filling
Mix both types of flour and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer beat margarine and sugar until light & fluffy. Add in soymilk, vanilla & almond extracts and mix in until combined. Add in flour mixture. Use hands to form a soft ball of dough. Cover dough in bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare baking sheets with either parchment paper or cooking spray. Roll dough into small dough balls, 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Use thump to press an indentation in each ball and then widen the well all around with fingers.
Using a small spoon ( I used a baby spoon), fill each cookie well with jam.
Bake for 12-15 minutes and jam is bubbling. Transfer to a wire rack with a spatula and let cool before eating (jam will be burning hot at first).
Last night it snowed for an hour or two around dinner time and then stopped. I thought when I went to bed last night that was the extent of our "winter snow storm" that had been predicted.
But then I awoke and had no idea that this was the scene around our house:
until I peeked out the window and saw this:
I measured 5 inches on our back deck at 7:30 am, 6 inches at 8:30 and 9 inches at 9:40am presently..and it is still coming down in huge flakes. We are predicted to get up to 12 inches. This is pretty unheard of in the greater Seattle area, so that might explain my fascination with all things weather lately.
We are off to get dressed and get outside for some snow play...and then back inside I am sure....and then back outside... and so the day will go! Hopefully, there will be some baking in-between snow jaunts. I want to make my little dog some homemade biscuits for Christmas. And I need to keep a good eye on her because she could literally disappear in this stuff:
The only thing that would make all this snow even better would be to have my husband home safe & sound. He is on his was home from NYC today and I truly wonder how he will make his way from the airport to our snowy valley. He might be calling an airport hotel home tonight. Bah!
This past week has brought freezing temperatures and glistening snow to our quaint little valley.
On Sunday I went for a walk to capture the freshly fallen snow. I love the sound of snow crunching under foot and the crispness in the air. For a summer/Hawaii lover, I surprise myself at how much I enjoy this aspect of winter.
We are due to get some more of the white stuff, possibly tonight. I am full of mixed emotions because on one hand it is beautiful and nothing puts me in a festive Christmas mood more than falling snow. On the other hand, school would most likely be cancelled. Also, my husband has to drive to the airport tomorrow and I want safe travels for him (and others).
Well, either way I guess it's not up to me...
I'm just living in a snow globe waiting to see if someone shakes things up.
When the barometer is falling, the wind is blowing, rain is coming down, and snow could be falling later tonight, what better inspiration is there for comfort food? Tonight it was (vegetarian) Sheppard's Pie using organic veggies from our CSA box. Yum!
I love the art work my kids create and wanted to have a way to showcase it. We had a few dilemmas and some trial and error before we found the solution that worked for us. See, we cannot put it on our stainless steel fridge because magnets do not stick. I also tried stringing wires up and attaching little clips but the brackets kept coming out of our walls once there was weight attached. I finally came up with the solution below and have been really happy with it.
I bought letters at the craft store and mod-podged artsy paper over each letter to spell out the words: OUR ART. Then I glued the decorated letters onto small mod-podged canvas frames. To display artwork, I simply tape the masterpieces on to the blank wall in the kids playroom and rotate every few months. Before I take down a display, I take a photograph of it for prosperity and sometimes save one or two actual pieces that the kids want in a portfolio. The kids love seeing their art in the "gallery" and I love knowing that I have a way to preserve their art without running out of space to house it.
Do you believe my title sentence? If you are anything like me, you may believe that mistakes are teachable moments...but that still doesn't make them any more comfortable to experience. If you are a parent, you may even want to try and steer your child from making certain mistakes. Yet, we often learn best from those moments of discomfort or struggle in our lives. A course I took on parenting even encouraged parents to encourage their young children to make lots & lots of mistakes (safety issues aside) and allow them the space to deal with the natural consequences. The thinking behind this is that when they get older and faced with tougher decisions, they will think about their actions and the BIG & LASTING consequences that can follow.
We may be drawn into perfectionist's thinking; the idea that getting it right the first time is more efficient and less messy and therefore better. But I beg to differ. If I look back on any and all major personal growth that I have undergone, it has always happened through trial & error. In fact, a recent funny and embarrassing story comes to mind to illustrate my point:
I was elated that Barack Obama was elected our 44th President of the United States of America and was invited to a Blue Victory Party. The e-mail invitation suggested bringing a fun blue themed drink to share. I thought of a blue martini with an Obama inspired name, blue spiked kool-aid and a few others. I wasn't sure how I would transport everything and knew I needed a drink that was either highly transportable or easy for people to make themselves. Then out of nowhere, the idea hit me: blue jello shots! This would be perfect...they are transportable, fun and very Barry blue (get it? Barry- berry - Barack's nickname?) Anyway, I haven't personally had jello since like 1976, so I didn't have any in the house and sent my hubby out to get some.
Cut to the party...everybody's happy, Will.i.am's song "It's a new day" is playing through the house speakers and my friend decides it's time to pass out my jello shots. As we passed them out, there were lots of giggles. Watch it wiggle, see it giggle, Jello brand gelatin. Remember that song? Well, it seems jello still gets that same reaction.
Until we stop at the table of my favorite local artist and his wife.
Uh, did I mention that his wife, happens to be a VEGAN....and OH MY WORD...I am a VEGETARIAN!! WHAT IN THE WORLD AM I DOING PASSING OUT JELLO SHOTS? This was my inner voice shouting inside my own brain as it caught up with my previously held (yet somehow lost) knowledge that gelatin is made from the by products of the meat industry.
Talk about a colossal and embarrassing mistake for a "vegetarian". My vegan friend was so graceful and yet I wanted to crawl under the nearest rock. To this day, I blame it on Obamamania...I temporarily lost my head in all the excitement.
From this mistake, however, came something very good. This jello oversight forced me to revisit my vegetarian principles and why I chose to eat a vegetarian diet in the first place. I got back in touch with my roots so to speak and in doing so, I actually decided to take the next determined step in this path and go vegan starting in the New Year. I most likely would not have taken that step if it wouldn't have been for an embarrassing mistake with Jello. That mistake pushed me out of my comfort zone and forced me to reevaluate. I am sure there will be many more mistakes in my future, for God knows, I am not perfect. As long as we keep our sense of humor in tact and nobody dies, I think we can always say mistakes are good. Now having read this, go out there and make some good mistakes yourself!!
