Recipe: Jalapeno Jam with Canned Jalapenos

A friend who gets food once a month from a local food bank mentioned a while back that they always get a few jars of jalapenos, and she can't do spicy foods. My kids don't do much spice either, but I said I would take them and see if I could 'do something' with them. I didn't have time just then, so I put the jars she gave me in the pantry. As well as the jars she gave me the next month. And the next month. This past weekend, I was straightening out the pantry and realized..

it was time to actually do something with them!

That's 22 jars and one stray can. That's a lot of nachos. I needed some other ideas.

Last year I made jalapeno jam with some fresh jalapenos, and gave it away for Christmas. Yummy on cream cheese and crackers! I wondered if canned jalapenos could be used the same way, so I started searching for recipes. Mostly I found recipes for jalapeno jelly, with someone in the comments asking the same question I had! Time to start experimenting.

I looked at the ingredients list, and as I thought, there was a lot of water, so I decided to drain them well first. Then I tossed them in the blender and chopped them up nice and fine.

Okay, that doesn't look terribly appetizing. But it sure smelled good!

These were labeled "hot and sweet", and a quick taste test told me they weren't lying on either part. Most recipes would call for a ton of sugar for this much pepper, but I just added a cup of sugar and a cup of honey. I also decided not to add vinegar, since that was already an ingredient in the jars. Yes, I had drained them, but they had obviously soaked a lot up. So, basically, the canned (drained) peppers, sugar, and honey. Bring to a boil, then cook and stir for ten minutes.

It really bubbled and popped at this point, so I put a lid partway over my pot, and actually put a glove on the hand I was using to stir! Before I did that, a small amount popped out and landed on my thumb, and I automatically licked it off. HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!!! But yummy:)

I added three packets of low-sugar pectin, cooked for five minutes more, and then canned. It made about 12 pints, although I put most of it in half-pint jars.

It looks a lot like salsa verde, but is definitely set like jam. Of course, we have to taste test, so let's break out the Ritz...

Please ignore absolutely EVERYONE'S shoes in the picture. It was a big moment.

Yum!! Enough bite to make Daddy happy, not so much I couldn't stand it. The cream cheese really brings out the flavor, so you don't just taste hot.

Verdict: canned peppers will work just fine. If you want it to be more jelly-like, you could add juice to the peppers and reduce it a bit. Apple or cranberry might add interesting flavors. These will appear in a few Christmas baskets this December - if they last that long! This seems to be our new bedtime snack!

Slow Cooker Bear Roast

A friend gave us several cuts of bear a few months back, and since I have never cooked it before, I hit the internet. What I mostly found were a lot of really dumb comments about cavemen, gamey meat, tough meat, etc. - from people who 'heard' about it, or were guessing. Seriously? It's a meat, guys, just like cow or pig. 

I made the bear roast for Thanksgiving (in addition to turkey), and it was so good there wasn't much left! The taste of bear meat supposedly depends on what it eats. This bear lived in southern NM, and probably ate both meat and plants. It wasn't gamey at all - and we have eaten several cuts of it now. The meat itself does not have a strong flavor, and isn't tough. I have done the roasts in a slow cooker, but we cooked backstrap in the oven (stuffed with cheese and peppers, wrapped in bacon...yum!), and that wasn't tough either. The only thing I wasn't impressed with was the bear sausage, which had little flavor - the next time I cook it, I will probably add some of the same seasonings as I do to the roasts, and simmer it for a while.

Here is the basic recipe I followed for the roast, although I don't use exact measurements:

Ingredients:

1 bear roast

1 can beer

3T butter

1 head garlic, separated into cloves

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

(Optional - chunk up some onions and spread them around the roast)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in frying pan and sear roast on all sides. 

2. Cut slits all over and stick garlic cloves in (or you can also just sprinkle with minced garlic from a jar, if you are lazy like I was the second time)

3. Place in slow cooker and pour beer over top. 

4. Sprinkle with other ingredients.

5. Cook on high for about two hours, then on low 4-5 hours more.

That's it! Basically how you might cook a beef roast, although you want to think of it like pork in terms of done-ness (like pork, bear meat can have trichinellosis). It smells SO GOOD, you will be tempted to taste early, just make sure the internal temp is 160 degrees (as per CDC). As you can see, it is falling apart in the end, and the flavor is amazing (as per local critics!)

Oh, My...

I just have to make a quick post before adding more items to my Christmas wish list...The Pioneer Woman's new line has officially launched today on Walmart.com, and I can't believe she kept this one a secret for so long:

Yes, it's a Charlie shaped cookie jar.

(The link on "this one" will take you to a page to order it, and the link on "Charlie" will take you to my review of his first book - which is still on my first blog! Time to migrate some posts! After I finish shopping...)

Review: Fix, Freeze and Feast by Kati Neville and Lindsay Tkacsik

I already sort-of-reviewed this book more than a year ago, although I forgot to post an update after we tried the first recipe (it was FANTASTIC!) I had put the book on my Christmas wish list at the suggestion of Amanda at A Patchwork of Books, and it has since become one of my most-used cookbooks. That's saying a lot, because I'm kind of addicted to the things!

One recipe isn't much of a review, though. What if I were to make...every single recipe in it? Or, at least give it a good try?

I have this week off, and after our family camping trip, I have been dropping the kids at Grandma's in the morning and then heading back home to get things done completely uninterrupted. Those of you without children, feel free to look perplexed. Trust me, this is a vacation.

I love freezing meals and cooking in bulk, but my meal freezer has been looking a bit bare. I started watching sales on meat a few weeks ago, and stocking up. Thick boneless pork chops, $1.37 a pound? I'll take all of them, thank-you. And then bug the butcher for more. 

Make a list of ingredients I don't have on hand, one more shopping trip, and I'm ready to go!

Obviously, I couldn't taste-test every recipe immediately to give it a full review, but I'll give a few comments on the directions as well as a tip or two. I will come back periodically as we go through the freezer, and add what we thought of the meals themselves. I won't include exact recipes, because that's what you need to buy the book for!

CHICKEN

I had already made the chicken cordon bleu, and the cherry skillet chicken. The first was excellent, the second I didn't really taste the cherries.

Chicken Broccoli Bake - I made 3 meals, and we ate one that night. It was okay, not something I would rave about. That was mostly a personal taste issue, though, there was nothing wrong with the recipe.

Chicken Curry - Good thing I have two of the biggest skillets they make!

I periodically adjusted amounts for my family size, and for how much was in my trays of meat. This made four meals. 

Update - yummy! A good staple meal, I adjusted the spices slightly because the kids aren't too into 'hot'. We have had this one several times, now.

While I have been bulk cooking for a while, I think one of the beauties of this book is that the recipes are so easy to follow, with built-in tips like, "while the chicken is cooling". They help save you time in the kitchen, without being an obvious extra instruction. I also appreciate phrase like, "mixture will be like a paste", so you are not standing there wondering, "is it supposed to look like this?!" Most recipes have 3-5 steps for preparation, and 2-3 steps for cooking it later (step one almost always being, completely thaw the entree). There are also serving suggestions or shopping tips on most pages.

Here are those first two recipes, ready to go into the freezer:

Some tips here: completely cool before putting in the freezer, or you will end up with ice crystals. I am fortunate enough to have two large freezers (okay, three, but who's counting?), so I can freeze the packets flat in one freezer,

Then transfer them to the other when they are solid. Never put warm items on top of already frozen ones, you'll end up with a thawing-and-refreezing cycle that ruins the texture, if not the taste.

Molasses-Rum Chicken - My shopping excursion included the biggest (but cheapest) bottles of rum, bourbon, whiskey and margarita mix, as well as a 4-pack of cheap beer. The cashier was, of course, one of my former students. I told her she drove me to it. This smelled wonderful, and like many of the meals, required no cooking now - just toss it all in baggies and pop it in the freezer. We will have to try this soon - it says to grill, but would probably do well baked, or maybe even in the slow cooker.

Update: very good - I put it in the crock pot, so it was tender and falling apart when I got home. We used the leftovers with some onions and cheese for burritos, another quick and easy meal.

Sweet Asian Chicken - This should be a kid pleaser. I think I will use it in a stir fry, waiting on an Asian Pack from Bountiful Baskets to come along.

Update: BB took too long, so I bought a freezer bag of stir fry veggies when I was in a hurry. Blech. The chicken was great, though! I'll try it again with fresh veggies!

Tex-Mex Chicken Fingers

On a salad, maybe? Or, with a blue cheese dip?

Mediterranean Roast Chicken - I have the feeling this is one I will like more than certain other family members (kalamata olives? capers?) Maybe I will cook it for myself some night when Daddy makes his seafood gumbo! (I don't eat things that swim.)

Update: the olives just added a little tang to the chicken, so everyone was happy eating that, and I scooped most of the cooked olives onto my portion.

BEEF

Spanish Rice - A classic tummy-filler. I use instant rice and just toss it (dry) in with the rest of the ingredients. By the time it thaws, it's moist, and can bake along with the rest of the ingredients. I also don't put a bag of cheese with the entree as suggested, because we ALWAYS have tons of shredded cheese on hand!

Another tip: If you know what you are making, and how many entrees, you can label your freezer bags before you start the whole process. Otherwise, any down time (like when meat is cooling - or when you just need to sit down!) you can label the bags according to how many meals it looks like. If you ever forget to label them until after you've filled them, you won't make that mistake a second time. 

**Note: the book comes with instruction labels in the back that you can copy and tape to your bags. I move things around too much to trust those to stay, but if you find you make something a lot, they may be worth printing on heavy paper and laminating!

Mozzarella Meatballs - Homemade meatballs take FOREVER (or at least it seems like it when you are forming ball after ball and the bowl isn't looking any emptier), but they are so worth it! Once you have made your own meatballs, you won't be able to stand the mush from the freezer section ever again.

These are formed around a small cube of mozzarella cheese:

and yes, I definitely had to taste-test one. Or more. YUM!!! This recipe includes a sauce, but they could be eaten alone.

As you can see above, I bake my meatballs in a glass pyrex dish. Most recipes call for cookie sheets or even muffin tins. I like these because they are easier to wash, the meatballs cook evenly, they don't stick, and I can go in a couple times and suck grease out with a turkey baster (if you do this, keep in mind that your dollar store baster may not be rated for hot grease - melted plastic is not a good food additive!)

Update: The sauce overpowered the meatballs. Next time, I will make them without.

Salisbury Meatballs - I made 4 batches of meatballs, but only two made it into the freezer, because somebody's husband ate half of them. And now I have a lot of mushroom sauce in the freezer, because he ate them plain.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs - Wait, I don't have pineapple tidbits? Oops - substituted crushed pineapple combined with pineapple slices I cut up in the can (for the sauce). I also added strips of orange bell pepper, because I needed to use some up, and because it looked pretty!

Update: the substitutions didn't hurt a bit. Froze and re-thawed really well, texture was fine and nothing stuck together. Served over minute rice, stirring the sauce into the rice.

Classic Chili - You can't really go wrong with chili, and I liked that this used two types of beans. I will probably heat it in the slow cooker.

Update: This was too bland for my taste. I will add more spices, maybe some liquid smoke, to the other portions.

**There are many great recipes involving various cuts of beef, but none of those have been on sale lately!

PORK

4B's Grilled Chops - Pork chops in the freezer are awesome, because it's mostly just toss-it-in-the-bag-and-freeze style, and they don't take long to cook when you get home at the end of the day. This is where the cheap beer came in.

Update: Another good, versatile staple

An's Pork Chops - I found the marinade didn't quite make enough for my liking, so I doubled it to make 4 meals. I don't like the smell of sesame oil, so I may use less next time, but it did give us a meal with a different flavor.

Update: these turned out better than expected, everyone liked the flavor, and the sesame oil wasn't obtrusive at all. I'll keep it in!

Cajun Braised Skillet Chops - The breading barely made it through the last chops, but I may have been putting it on a bit heavily. Definitely not a way I have ever prepared pork chops, so I am looking forward to trying these.

Update: Yuuuuuummm!

Margarita Pork Chops - Generally my drink of choice, so I couldn't not make these!

Update: Not enough lime flavor to my taste, I'll add more next time. Made in a pan, turned out a bit dry - maybe add some butter when frying?

Apple and Cranberry Pork Loin - Ever start putting a recipe together and, no matter how carefully you have planned, realize you don't have a key ingredient? Well, that's one of the perks of freezer cooking - you can get it later!

By the way, I label these with instructions that would make sense to me. If I were labeling them for someone else - my smart-a** husband, for example - I would be more specific. Starting with, "take contents OUT of plastic bag."

Update: I'm not sure that the apples made a big difference. I cooked it in the slow cooker - an hour on high, then the rest of the day on low. The meat was excellent, and I liked the cranberry/onion flavor combination! 

Austrian Pork Goulash - Another classic tummy filler! Anything with this much onion and garlic:

definitely has a place at our table.

Update: Logan asked if he can have this in his lunch when he starts school next year. I think that says it all.

Pork Loin Ragout

The SMELLS from this sauce and spices made me want to dive in right there! 

Sticky Drunk Pig on a Stick - You know you have to try something with a name like that. I did not add the onions, because I plan to skewer it with big chunks of onions, and probably other veggies, and I like them fresh and crisp. (And at 1 1/2 cups bourbon for three entrees, that pig is indeed well-inebriated.)

Update: I cooked this at home with onion chunks, green bell peppers, and grape tomatoes, and then brought it to my mil's for dinner. Very well received!

And, that is where I ran out of meat - and freezer space! 

Still many more recipes I want to try...and ribs are on sale for $1 a pound...and I haven't even touched the sections on meatless main dishes, sides, soups, breakfasts, snacks...

This fantastic book also comes with tips for shopping in bulk, adapting recipes, prepping, cooking clubs, shopping lists, and more! It really is the perfect resource for someone who really wants to get into bulk/freezer cooking and isn't sure where to start!

Final count (bold type are items from Fix, Freeze and Feast):

4 B's Grilled Chops (4)

Margarita Pork Chops (4)

Meatloaf (2)

Classic Chili (4)

Pineapple Pork Chops (1)

Pineapple Chicken (1)

Spanish Rice (4)

Salisbury Meatballs (2)

Sloppy Joe Mix (1)

Bada Bing Pork Chops (1)

Honey Mustard Pork Chops (2)

Chicken Taco filling (2)

Chicken Curry (4)

Chicken Broccoli Bake (2)

Cajun Braised Skillet Chops (2)

Mozzarella Meatballs (4)

An's Pork Chops (4)

Sweet and Sour Meatballs (4)

Molasses Rum Chicken (4)

Sweet Asian Chicken (4)

Tex Mex Chicken Fingers (3)

Mediterranean Chicken (4)

Pork Chops with Tangy Honey Sauce (4)

Marinated Pork Chops (4)

Garlic Parmesan Pork Chops (4)

Bourbon Basted Pork Chops (4)

Austrian Pork Goulash (2)

Pork Loin Ragout (2)

Sticky Drunk Pig on a Stick (2)

Apple Cranberry Pork Loin (2)

Italian Herb Baked Chicken (2)

At least three months of meals in just a couple days of prepping - not too bad! Bring on the zombie apocalypse! (Just don't cut my power - eek!)

Jammy Dump Cake

As I have mentioned a time or two before, I am slightly addicted to Bountiful Baskets. All that glorious produce, at such great prices! This weekend is our local cherry festival, and cherries are going for around $4 a pound, $3.59 in the stores when I looked this week, and on BB? Around $2 a pound. 

Sometimes, however, I order a teensy bit more than I can deal with in a week, and I have to make something quickly. There is only so much you can stuff into a freezer, so the fruit often becomes jam.

I have a lot of jam.

You can only eat so many PB and J sandwiches, and laws have made it ridiculously hard to sell things you have made at home, so I am always looking for new ways to use it. Today I got to thinking about dump cakes, and wondered if they would work with jams as well as with pie fillings. I couldn't find anything on line, which left me with one way to find out:

I remember when my old rafting group made dump cake, we used the squirt bottles of butter and put a ribbon on top, but that's one thing I don't generally buy. 

Layer half the cake mix, a pint of jam, the other half of the cake mix, and thinly sliced butter. Into the oven at 350 for about half an hour, and...

then completely forget to take a picture of it before you eat it. Think VERY rich brownies, perfect with cool whip or ice cream! I think next time I might give it one quick stir, as a couple spots stayed dry - or, maybe just use more butter. Otherwise, it was great! 

Now, what cake mix would go with the pina colada jam...

Recipe: High Altitude Pumpkin Bread

I have one freezer out in the garage that is entirely dedicated to fruits and vegetables to be used in future baking projects.

Until the power goes out and we don't realize it for 24 hours, in which case - the future is now!

I lost the top shelves - bananas, shredded zucchini, pears (organic! sob), and the bottom shelves (corn, pumpkin) were still mostly frozen, but I still had a large plastic tub full of things that something needed to happen to quickly. Refreezing is an option, but that starts to do bad things to texture, and I wanted to bring some treats to work anyway...

There was one bag of pumpkin chunks on a different shelf that had completely thawed. I love pumpkin bread, but any kind of bread at our altitude (almost 7,000 feet) can be tricky. I have been fiddling with recipes, and this one turned out pretty well, so I wanted to pass it along!

(Feel free to halve - I measured this to match the amount of pumpkin I had to use)

In one LARGE bowl, mix:

4 cups white sugar

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups applesauce

8 eggs

4 cups smooshed pumpkin

In another LARGE bowl, sift together:

7 cups of flour

4 teaspoons baking soda

4 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons nutmeg

2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cloves

I never used to bother with sifting, but it really makes a difference at this altitude. Plus, you don't have to worry about biting into a clump of baking soda that made it past you - blech! You also want to stir the wet dough as little as possible, to keep it from getting gluey, so it helps to start with all the dry ingredients already well-mixed.

Add the first bowl to the second, stirring gently with a wooden spoon. Again, you don't want glue! Optional: When it was mostly mixed, I put half of it back into the first bowl, and finished stirring with a bag of chocolate chips in one batch, and raisins in the other. You could also add your favorite nuts.

Preheat oven to 350 while you drop the mixture into muffin tins or little bread pans (on top of cookie sheets, in case of overflow). I filled these about halfway, and baked until the good old toothpick came away clean:

Perfect!

Take a moment to admire the lovely paper plate. Nothing but the most sophisticated tableware, here.

Now, about those frozen, grilled peaches...

Recipe: Pomegranate White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I made these up last year when pomegranates first appeared in my Bountiful Basket, and they disappeared almost immediately! As soon as I saw the poms again I knew I needed a repeat - it just took me a while to get to them. Fortunately, pomegranates keep pretty well just out on the kitchen counter (and make a pretty decoration in the meantime!)

First up is getting the seeds out. Now, before you send me the link, yes, I have seen the video of the attractive young man playing whack-a-mole with the pomegranate halves to get the seeds out. I've tried it, and I usually end up playing whack-a-thumb. This method works just as easily for me - slice off the very top, just so you can see where the sections are:

slice down each section:

separate:

and rub your thumbs over the seeds to get them out. Easy-peasy.

This is seven pomegranates-worth of seeds, and I only used a cup for the cookies - they freeze really well if you end up with more - or, just eat them while you bake!

For now, set them aside and mix:

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening

Sift in and mix:

1 1/2 cups flour*
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add:

3 cups rolled oats

Stir in just until mixed:

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 cup (or more) pomegranate seeds

Drop spoonfuls on cookie sheets and bake at 350 until golden brown on the bottom. These stay pretty soft and chewy, and can stick to the pan, so removing them quickly is important but tricky. If a few crumble, don't sweat it - you now have a bag of yummy granola to keep in your car! Those that make it off in one piece -

- may not be especially attractive, but boy do they taste good! A little bit sweet, a little bit tart, and a whole lot of yum. The red makes these a festive addition to your Christmas platters, or you can convince yourself the pomegranate seeds make them healthy, and just eat them year-round.

*I am at an extremely high altitude, so I actually use 2 cups of flour

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus and an Accident

One of this week's Bountiful Baskets add-ons was asparagus - 11 pounds for $16.50. Since it is currently running $3.48 a pound at the local grocery store, I bought two! This is one of the few vegetables Daddy will eat cooked, and the kids and I all like it, too - score! Before I froze most of it, I wanted to find some new (to us) ways to prepare it, so I scoured the internet for recipes - and then, as usual, ignored them all and did my own thing.

 

I saw lots of prosciutto-wrapped asparagus recipes, but I wanted bacon. We all want bacon in this household. The bacon I have is pretty thick, but I was still worried about chewy asparagus, so I cooked it a bit first:

 

1. Melt a dollop of butter in a skillet (if the word 'bacon' didn't clue you in, this is not a heart-healthy recipe.)

2. Add a lot of minced garlic (exact measurements are so important to me), a couple pounds of asparagus spears (ends trimmed), and some grape tomatoes, halved. I actually used the mini heirloom tomatoes from several baskets ago - I love how long everything lasts! - but I'm usually more likely to have grape tomatoes around. Drizzle on some lemon juice, cover, and simmer until asparagus is just tender.

 

Make sure your assistant is alert and attentive.

 

3. Let cool slightly. Line a baking sheet with foil (unless you want to be scrubbing forever). Wrap 3 spears in a slice of bacon, then sprinkle the tomatoes and garlic over the top.

 

Now, that's just purty!

4. Bake in the oven at 350, until bacon is cooked.

 

Now, here's where the accident comes in. I still had half a package of bacon, so I decided to cook the rest of it up, because - you know, bacon! And, because I am too lazy to wash more dishes than absolutely necessary, I cooked it in the same skillet that previously had asparagus, etc. in it, without rinsing out the remaining lemon juice/butter/garlic. Because, garlic goes great with bacon, and because - lazy!

 

When the first slices cooled, of course I bit into one, and - oh. my. gosh. You guys.

 

Bacon! With garlic! And lemon juice! It's AWESOME! I didn't think you could make bacon any better, but - lemon juice - whoda thunk it?! So, now you know how those famous chefs came up with their delicious but off-the-wall combinations: laziness. I cooked a whole 'nother pack the same way, and none of it made it to supper time.

 

My assistant even woke up for it!

 

As for the original recipe, it would have been perfect if I had used regular, thin-sliced bacon instead of thick-sliced. The asparagus cooked much faster, and I had to take the bacon off and finish cooking it separately, which kind of defeats the whole prettiness thing. You might also try them on a broiler pan (but baking them, not broiling) to drain some of the grease off. However you do it, though...it's bacon! So, it's all good!

 



Bountiful Baskets Start to Finish, Part 4 - More Cooking!



First up today: the giant mushrooms we got in a previous basket. I had used a few, but still had a dozen or so. I looked at several different recipes for stuffed mushrooms, and cobbled together the parts I liked.

 

First stop: bacon! If I put bacon on cat food, people in my house would eat it. It's kind of like adding sequins to any craft project at the library - instant hit. I like to cut it up before I fry it, rather than crumbling afterward.

 

 

I cooked 2 pounds, but some went into turnip greens, Daddy ate some, a handful was saved for lunch, Daddy ate some, the kids had a few pieces, and Daddy ate some. So...maybe half a pound went into this.

 

Next I pulled the stems from the mushrooms and chopped them, then sautéed with minced garlic, and finely chopped onion.

 

Then I forgot to take a picture until I had already tossed it all in the blender, along with the bacon.

 

I toasted a piece of sourdough bread and shredded it, and added a package of cream cheese and one of crumbled blue cheese.

 

I just needed everything chopped up, which was good, because the cream cheese kept sticking to the sides and kept everything from mixing. I would suggest blending everything else together, then mixing in the cream cheese.

 

I finally took the blades out and stirred it up with a spoon.

 

Next just stuff the mushroom caps to overflowing. They don't have to look pretty - they're mushrooms! Mushrooms are ugly! Embrace it!

 

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Inhale deeply and try to fend off drooling family members.

When do I get some?

 I moved Baby S.'s high chair into the kitchen, and he supervised the cooking today.

Next up were apple muffins with the apples that were getting to be past their prime. Except I couldn't find my tried-and-true apple muffin recipe. So, I faked it, and ended up with something completely different anyway.

Start with any basic fruit muffin recipe you can find on line. Change the white sugar to brown.

 

Because brown sugar is yummy.

 

Toss in a handful of zucchini, because you still have some left over from the bread in yesterday's post.

 

Peel and chop your apples.

 

Chop up some strawberries, because you suddenly have a ton.

 

If you are assigned to compost duty, make sure you wear appropriate attire, such as your best dress.

 

Fold fruit in gently, and pour into muffin papers left over from you Hello Kitty birthday party. Top with cinnamon sugar, and one blackberry each.

 

Bake for as long as it takes for the baby to finish nursing, and you to remember that you have muffins in the oven.

 

And for your daughter to decide to use her hand lotion as hair gel.

 

Exactly the right amount of time!

 

These three won't fit in the muffin carrier, so you will have to eat them.

 

Supper consisted of turnip greens with the aforementioned bacon, the mushrooms, and a salad with lots of BB veggies. Here, S. of the lotioned hair is discovering sugar snap peas.

That pretty much says it all! The kids weren't sure about the mushrooms, although L. scooped out all his filling and ate it. Daddy made up for their ambivalence - there were no leftovers.