Big Helper Series: Cleaning

Atticus has become my big helper. That's what I tell him. When he was very little he would pick up little things off the floor that I didn't want him to have and he would hand them to me. I wanted to encourage this behavior, specifically the not putting these found objects in his mouth part, and so I would say "thank you, that is so helpful!" Pretty soon he was handing me things and saying "helpful."

He is learning to be helpful in other ways now too. Which jobs he does has been led largely by what he takes an interest in. I try to pay attention and quickly find a way for him to participate in household chores as much as possible. It takes some work sometimes, but frequently the payoff of a toddler engaged in a task for even a minute can be huge.

This is the first part of a series I'll be doing on my big helper. This first installment is about cleaning. It's really the first way he started engaging in the work of our home. His first job he tackled was cleaning his high chair tray. As you can imagine, he learned by watching me and was overjoyed to be given a chance to imitate me.

Here he is dusting. This was our old tv, for a while he got really dedicated to keeping our new tv dusted. (This video also features our office mid-organization, so please excuse the mess. It's not done yet, but it sure doesn't look like this!)

Mopping and quite on the move.

Vacuuming. He also likes to take this vacuum apart and put it back together and usually forgets the filter.

While setting his table (with real stoneware and glass dishes) for us to have a snack, he spilled some milk. No problem! He ran to the kitchen where he got a rag from the rag box, came back to the living room and cleaned up his mess, then put the rag in the laundry basket in the dining room.

Here he is sorting silverware. For now he just sorts by type and not size. We just started this back up again. We made an earlier attempt about a month or so ago and he started running off, fork in hand, tines up. Not okay. He's been more responsible about it this time around. Obviously this is a great sorting activity and I don't have to scrounge up anything to make it happen!

On that note, he has also been helping me unload the dishwasher in other ways for several months now. He puts things on his shelf (like his bowls, cups, and spoons) and in his cupboard (particularly the wooden spoons and citrus juicer). I take the plates and bowls out of the dishwasher, stack them and bring them into the dining room. Then Atticus hands them to me one by one and I put them away in the buffet. Afterward he gets to close the cabinet door. It has become a good routine for us. A little after breakfast I just have to shout that I need help and Atticus comes running to help unload the dishwasher.

It's funny, as much as having a toddler makes everything more complicated and exhausting, it can also provide many motivations to get the housework done!

Posted with Blogsy

Midsummer Night's Quiche

It's been pretty mild in Wisconsin this summer, particularly compared to last summer. There was only a short stretch of actual heat, and I don't think it would have felt so hot if it hadn't been so cool all the rest of the summer. And while Facebook has been taunting me with beautiful farmers market produce since May, our farmers market only just this week hit a point that even comes close to that kind of excitement.

My lettuce is finally producing at a rate that suites our family, but some of it has started to bolt. I've said before that I like to blanch and freeze bolted and less tender arugula. My arugula bolted so fast this year that I hardly got any leaves. I'll be planting a second round probably in the next week and will hope for better results.

However, I took some inspiration from Jacques Pepin, and decided to try cooking other kinds of lettuce. I had one variety out of a mix bolt into tall stalks. I don't like bitter greens so I thought that cooking them might temper the bitter similarly to the arugula. I gathered some herbs and some lettuce for a side salad and I was ready to throw together a quiche. The recipe below is how I made it, but you should adapt it to make the best use of your own produce.

Who doesn't like a basket full of garden produce?

I made my usual shortening pie crust except that I did half whole wheat flour. You could use whatever you like as long as it isn't sweet. A store bought lard based crust would work really well.

Get your onions sautéing first in whatever you like to use. I did mine in butter and olive oil because it is heavenly. I wouldn't stress about getting them perfectly caramelized or anything. As long as they are very soft, just cook them for as long as it takes you to get your other ingredients prepped.

Set your onions aside and use the same pan to cook your tomatoes down a bit and wilt your lettuce. Put a cover on the pan and check periodically until you get to a point you are happy with. Now is a good time to get the pie crust in the pan and grate the cheese if you haven't already.

Now layer.

Pour the egg mixture on top (pictured) and then sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

Serve with a salad or fruit or both! And a toddler mom tip: it's a pie.

 

Midsummer Night's Quiche

1 recipe pie crust for 9 inch pie (you only need half, so reserve the other half for another use), prepped in pie pan

Butter and extra-virgin olive oil

1 small or medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

Bolted greens, torn

1 Roma tomato, chopped

1/3 lb gruyere cheese, grated

Generous handful fresh basil and oregano, coarsely chopped

6 large eggs

Scant 1 cup heavy whipping cream (there are many dairy options for making quiche, this is what I had on hand and it made for a great texture, light and moist)

Pinch of salt

Dash of black pepper

A couple generous dashes of nutmeg (I LOVE nutmeg!)

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until very soft or caramelized, lowering temperature as needed to prevent them from getting crispy. Transfer to a bowl.

Return pan to medium heat and add tomatoes. Once they've released some moisture, add the lettuce and cover, stirring occasionally until the lettuce is wilted and less bitter and the flavors start to come together. Remove from heat.

Begin to layer the quiche. On the bottom of the crust add 1/2 the cheese, then the onions, then the lettuce and tomatoes. Add a sprinkle of cheese then top with the herbs.

Beat together the eggs, cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Carefully pour over the layered ingredients. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake in the oven about 25-30 minutes, covering the edges of the crust at the 20 minute mark if you are concerned about over-browning the edges. It is done when it no longer jiggles and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to rest a few minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Willow Branch Garden Structures

(This post has been a long time coming because I thought I had more pictures. I don't. So here it is!)

A couple months ago my in-laws' willow tree at the parsonage where they live suffered some serious ice damage. It was really a shame because it is the focal point of many pictures for all of us, and it is just so amazing. During our church's yard cleanup day, the mess got cleaned up and the branches cut down to a manageable size. The tree is still there, but no longer in its former glory.

It wasn't all bad, however. I had had various trellis and arbor projects in mind for my garden but the materials I had hoped to use had turned out to be impossibly expensive and that was by using the cheapest materials. So I had an idea to use the downed willow branches. Best part, this plan was almost free! (screws, nails, and twine aren't free, but we already have them around so it feels like it) Collecting the branches proved exhausting because they had been bulldozed into a pile precariously at the edge of a gully dumping area. It was not easy to get them untangled without falling to my death. But here I am.

First I wove an arbor over my lettuce bed. I used larger pieces for the basic shape and support by screwing them into the sides of the beds and then used the long rope-like pieces to connect it together and create more lattice for the plants to climb on. I used a variety of methods to use the thin pieces - braiding, twisting, and wrapping. I held it fast with twine. I'm hoping it will eventually harden enough to go without the twine.

 

My plan for this bed is that as the summer gets hotter, my pole beans will fill in over the lettuce bed, filtering the sunlight and extending my lettuce growing season. As it cools down, the beans will peter out and I can cut them down and let the lettuce have full sun again. That's the theory anyway. I was going to do it last year, but with the drought and the hungry bunnies it brought I didn't get any lettuce or beans.

Next, Zac screwed some more branches to the sides of the other beds. I'll be running twine between these for the other beans to climb. I've also got peas now going up some of these willow lattices.

I was a bit nervous at first that it was looking tacky. And I think that the next time I build an arbor I'll have a better idea of how to approach it. But now that it's done I actually think it looks quite nice.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Superfood Molasses Sourdough Muffins

Atticus rarely eats meat. It is a little annoying at times, but I also realize it isn't necessary that he does and that he'll probably get around to it eventually. In the meantime, however, I've been in a bit of a scramble to make sure he gets non-meat sources of iron as well as vitamin C to help with absorption. It isn't as easy as I had assumed.

To help with this, I've developed a superfood muffin that provides a generous helping of minerals and other great for you things. These were a big hit. They are very soft and airy, not particularly sweet.

I'll admit upfront, you might not have these ingredients in your pantry, but I think they are well worth picking up and keeping on hand. Also, this recipe calls for unfed sourdough starter. I pulled mine straight from the fridge.




Superfood Molasses Sourdough Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
heaping 1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp turmeric (this adds a boost of health, but if you don't have it don't worry about it)
2 eggs
2/3 cup unsulphured blackstrap molasses
1 cup unfed sourdough starter
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup chia seeds

Grease a 12 muffin tin with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (I do 325 with my dark nonstick pan.)

Whisk together the dry ingredients (except the chia seeds) in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, molasses, sourdough starter, coconut oil, lemon zest and juice, and chia seeds. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until well incorporated.

Spoon batter into the muffin tins. Bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before serving. They go great with milk.

Recipe adapted from this recipe at cate's world kitchen.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

So this post is a long time coming. Probably one proof that my life is greatly in need of some organization. We are settling into routine and for my little family that is a big deal. Ever and always changing has been the theme of my life since marrying Eric. But after five moves in four years I can safely say we are at least staying in the home we have had for almost a year... another six months. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but for us... It's a long term commitment.
My life is different in many ways from my sister's. We do not have a big house and none of my home projects include renovation of any kind. We rent a two bedroom condo and my projects mostly include making due with what we have and making things work the way they are. This has involved borrowing (we still need to buy our own) a wagon for the long hauls with groceries, baby gear, ect. from our garage to our condo. Utilizing every nook and cranny for storage. Once again ridding ourselves of things we don't need. And rearranging furniture numerous times.

Projects on the horizon, hopefully:
*Installing shelves in our hall closet (so I can make myself a pretty pantry)
*Installing a shelving system in our garage (so we can rid our house of boxes we have no where to store)
*Beautifying our patio and making a play space for Esmond outside
*Turning the second hall closet from a catch all to an organized office closet/ art space
*Finish Esmond's room
- he has no lights...
-installing bookshelves
-making a seat/storage system

Below is a project I can say I have finished. Hurray! For four years Eric and I have been talking about having our very own coffee/drinks bar. We have finally done it. My parents got us the Delonghi espresso machine and my grandma the vintage bar/cabinet which we painted black. This wall was incredibly blank and lacking in purpose and is now a space to entertain.

House Projects Beget House Projects

We've been working on installing a new vinyl floor in our kitchen. We started last Saturday and got back to it today. Well, we got back to prepping the other side of the kitchen to finish but we never actually laid any of the tiles. That's because, in response to an offhand comment by Zac about how much he hates that cabinet, we decided to replace one of the cabinets!





This is Zac starting to tear off part of the countertop to allow us to remove and replace the old cabinet. It is eventually our intention to replace the whole countertop, now we are committed.





Here you can see where the cabinet was. I can't explain why there appear to be two different walls back there. It's an old house. One thing to note is that the corner isn't square. We don't like this as it makes for a weird cabinet and reduces counter space (which is scarce), but our original plan had been to just install a square countertop over the weird cabinet and leave it at that. This was to save money on new cabinets.

However, I made the delightful discovery that a cabinet of drawers we had brought down from the kitchen upstairs (the house had been a duplex) would fit perfectly in that space. Moving it from where it was isn't a problem because we need to install a pantry in that space anyway.





So here is the "finished" product! Mismatched for now, but it's in place and we can worry about painting it all later. One nice feature of this cabinet is the pull out cutting board. When we get the new countertop installed we will replace the cutting board and give the kitchen a little more prep space.

So we didn't finish the floor, but we actually did all the prep for it so we are hoping to get right to laying tile on Monday evening. Plus I feel really great about fixing a problem I didn't think we would be able to fix. That's a great Saturday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chalkboard Highchair Tray

I got bit by the chalkboard paint bug. I've got a few projects in mind, but this first was an original so I thought I would share.

First, a little background: our highchair tray, which is removable, has another tray layer which is also removable. We used to use the top tray and then we wouldn't have to remove he whole thing to clean it after meals. However, during a bought of teething, Atticus started biting it and making it pop off, so we just stopped using it. This led to the discovery that it was really almost just as easy to clean the big tray. So the top piece just sat around collecting dust. Until recently!

I decided to put it to better use and give up on the idea of ever using it for food again. I painted it with chalkboard paint!






I used a sponge brush and painted two layers. Note that I did not paint meticulously. I'm sure you could, but if I had set up that kind of standard for this project I never would have started. So squiggly edges it is for us! Also, the surface isn't smooth, it actually has a very brushstroke texture to it. However, following the advice on the can of paint to rub a piece of chalk all over it first, then erase it all, to prime the chalkboard really seemed to mitigate what might have been a texture issue. As an eraser I used a scrap piece of felt.





Atticus took to it pretty quickly. He colored much in the way he does with crayons right now, mostly lines with the occasional scribble. I was mostly just glad that he wasn't breaking or eating the chalk. He also picked up on he word "chalk" almost immediately, so that will be interesting.





I suppose it will eventually crack. The tray is plastic and made to bend, so it seems inevitable. So far so good though, and maybe if we are careful we can get a good amount of use out of it. I plan to use it primarily to give him something to keep him busy while I'm cooking.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad