I swear I must have been a prepper in a past life. My husband too for that matter. Lately he’s all about doing/fixing/building/repurposing things for ourselves when he can and has decided to take up blacksmithing as a hobby. I am highly supportive of creative physical hobbies that also happen …
My two daughters left to spend a week on my dad’s farm yesterday which is one of the things they have come to look forward to most during the summer as it’s become an annual trip for them. They will be hanging out with the …
Adventures in landscaping part 2: I turned my back from my planting project for a moment while the kids were out exploring the outdoor space between the large pine trees which is full of loose dirt perfect for digging and mud pies. I should have known better. I looked back and the girls had disappeared into the house. Inside, I found a set of muddy footprints across the floor and onto the (light colored) carpet but no girls… they had already returned to the outdoors and were shoveling (flinging) dirt high in the air so it rained down upon them. Awesome. My son then met be by the garage and I saw a good portion of dirt ground into his hair and stuck to his arms. When I angrily asked him and his sisters why they had tracked in mud and were so darn dirty, his sheepish response to me was simple and honest: “I was being happy, Mom”. I was instantly defused and gave him a hug. I sent him back to go play in the mud as I to, am happiest when I play in the dirt planting and digging my landscape and garden. Despite the inconvenience of being dirty and making a mess (gasp!), I realize that that a rich childhood (and adulthood) is often made of mudpies and that we all need to continue to find that little snippet of whatever makes us happiest so we can say in that moment that we “are being happy” too.
Aside from playing in the dirt, cooking is one of those “being happy” moments for me which can be equally fun and messy (just ask my kitchen). Today’s adventure is a dairy free poppyseed dressing poured generously over a spinach and berry salad. The poppyseed dressing starts with this awesome homemade minute mayonnaise and uses coconut milk to thin it slightly though you can certainly use almond milk or regular milk. The dressing gets its tang from a mixture of apple cider vinegar and citrus and its sweetness from local honey which I acquired at the farmer’s market.
Be extra fancy and put the dairy free poppyseed dressing in a cool little cruet or just use a mason jar for rustic appeal and it’ll keep for a few weeks in the fridge. The salad pairing is summery simple with fresh garden spinach, celery, red onion, blueberries and sweet cherries. Toss it all together and you have one awesome plate of happiness with a cherry on top.
“Whoa, Mom! These are GOOD!” exclaimed my oldest daughter with her mouthful of Swedish pancakes. That was exactly the sentiment I was hoping for from my picky “dad-makes-the-best-pancakes” crowd. It occurred to me over a plate of huge fluffy pancakes this past weekend that I have …
After many small moments of chaos last weekend, like the brakes not working properly on our moving truck (kind of a big deal), and then having the electricity taken out by a careless driver running into one of the poles and knocking down the transformer, we finally got moved in. Normally, …
So. Tired. Of. Packing. I’m living among mountains of boxes and can’t find anything I want/need at any point of time. Sigh. After this weekend we will be completely moved to the new house and then I will hopefully have some time to organize, organize and hey, do more organizing! I’m such a nerd when it comes to organizing. I get really excited about it and my husband just rolls his eyes. It’s SO not his thing. His method of organizing is to put things into piles of semi-related items. Drives me crazy but I love him. Speaking of love, I love these carrot cupcakes. Why? Because they are full of sneaky nutrition disguised as dessert and I figured out a less sweet and optionally dairy free frosting to put on top too!!
These are a great little treat for birthdays or dessert, or just because you want something yummy to celebrate the little (or big) things in life. I did make these with a gluten free all purpose flour base and they taste divine. You can totally use regular flour too in the same proportion. Instead of raisins, I opted for chopped dates as they are more fiber rich and equally as sweet. Split these bad boys in half and you can just see the delicious carrot and date awesomeness.
For the frosting, I kept tradition with a cream cheese based frosting but nixed the butter. I’m certainly not opposed to using butter but by using a combination of cream cheese and plain unsweetened Greek yogurt, you end up with a thicker consistency to start with meaning you need to add less powdered sugar to get the proper frosting thickness. Less sugar is a VERY good thing. To make it dairy free, simply use a dairy free cream cheese like Tofutti and a coconut milk based yogurt. I also used a vanilla bean paste for some real vanilla flavor and to give it some pretty little speckles in the frosting. It was so tasty I kept licking the frosting… the spoons, the bowl, the counter… um, yeah, it’s THAT good. So what are you waiting for?!?!
After a stressful morning yesterday, we pulled it off and closed on our new house!! It was a beautiful day to CELEBRATE!!!!! Now it’s on to more packing as we have about two weeks to slowly move to the new place before we close on …
One week to go until we close on our new house and the process is finally going smoothly so we’re now expecting to close on time. Wheeee!! I may actually get to plant a garden this year and that makes me VERY happy. Vacations also make me happy. This …
Nothing beats a flavorful grilled steak or chicken. Especially when it’s had a nice long marinade in an Indian spiced yogurt mixture overnight to let the flavors soak in and soften the meat to pure tender perfection. Don’t let this tandoori chicken intimidate you. It looks challenging and has many ingredients but it’s secretly really easy to make and will impress any dinner guests you have over to sample your handiwork.
To really bring out the fragrant spices in this dish, I use whole cardamom and cloves rather than ground and then smash them with a mortar and pestle.
You can use pre-ground spices as well just make sure they’re fresh for the best flavor. All of the marinade ingredients then come together quick as a flash. The key to getting all that deep delicious spice infused into the tandoori chicken is to lightly score the cuts of chicken prior to soaking in the marinade. Then let the chicken rest in its yogurt bath for 24 hours. The yogurt cultures will gently break down the meat just enough to give it the PERFECT tenderness and keep it juicy.
When you’re ready to prepare your meal, either place the chicken pieces directly on the grill or you can bake them by placing them on a baking sheet with a wire rack to elevate them like this:
If you grill them, do so over medium low heat turning every 10 minutes for about 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. If you bake them, bake for 20 minutes and turn on the broiler for an additional 5 minutes to get a similar char to grilling. Both ways you cook it will result in a tasty tandoori chicken. Need a coordinating side dish? No problem! This one-pot vegetable curried rice has ya covered!
I’m ready to shake things up a bit and add a lovely little spice to the table with a vegetable curried rice. Even better, you only need one pot! There is a particular order to go about this if you want to keep it all …
