Our House in the Middle of Our Street

At the end of June we finished a monumental task- we finished the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series; nine books where the shortest one was 150 pages, and most were well over 300. It took us a solid 7 months of reading aloud, during school time, bedtimes, bored times, etc. and I am so glad I made this a year-long goal, because quite frankly, it was a doozy. I had never read the entire series myself, I remember reading at least two of them, but I knew my kids were at the right age to enjoy these books. There are a number of series I have 'planned' to read to them through the next 3 years or so, and these were the books that I thought best to start with, because the kids would enjoy the simple stories of pioneer life, and were considered the 'youngest' of the series. The last two large books, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years, were listened aloud on audio with Cherry Jones (thanks for the tip, Jamie Martin! ) because I needed a break, and my ...

As the kids start to get older I'm putting a lot of energy into finding excellent resources to teach my kids that are affordable and interesting outside of picture books. Cooked , a 4-part series by Michael Pollan on Netflix, is one of those resources.  As an American in Canada, I sometimes feel a bit snobbish turning my nose down at the options found here. My pitiful, first-world-problem attitude of 'there's nothing on this Netflix'! led me to this series, which I'd never pick in a million years if I could watch Parenthood, Nashville, and New Girl back to back. Such is life, and I'm glad, because watching this--a show I was only marginally interested in--became a full supply of conversation between myself and my kids when we watched all four parts together.  I own one of Michael Pollan's foodie books , but I haven't read it yet. This documentary series is four parts named after elements used in or with cooking: Fire, Air, Water, and Ear...

 The 30 ft. pool at Lynn Canyon The list that I've tried to come up with has been a little harder than in years past but as I let it sit and brew for a bit, I had plenty of fresh ideas. The yearly lists (you can see 15 in 2015 , my 29 before 30  birthday list here , and 28 before 29 here ) help me focus on small/big, personal/family/friend, and creative/mental goals I have in any given year. Sometimes they are silly and sometimes I get them done before even writing them down, as you'll see below. They are just things I want to try, things I want to do, or things I want to enjoy with others. Some are big Bucket/Lifetime goals (1 below!) but most are pretty small things that niggle the back of my mind and writing them down helps me attain them quicker than forgetting about it 3 times.  16 in 2016 1) get a dog! (this didn't happen for various reasons last year, this year we're still considering it) 2) make ' sweet treat ' hair clips for the gir...

these buns just need a plop of gooey cream-cheese frosting I don't know about you, but I tend to cook seasonally. I don't make many soups in the summer, and I don't eat nearly as much hummus, tomatoes, and cucumber dips in the winter. I think it has a lot to do with budget-buying seasonal  produce is often the cheapest option because there is an abundance of it, and the price goes down. I eat salad after salad in the summer but I find that I sometimes have to force a salad here and there through late Fall and winter...until the tail end of winter when I'm longing for some fresh greens! When there's about four weeks left of summer, I start to get a hankering for Fall soups. Sure, I want the heat to end, and my favorite temperature (about 65 degrees F) to come back, but mostly, I just want to start nearly every dinner with onion and garlic cooked in oil or butter. A few weeks back-still summer--I had a really good opportunity to make some friends chili and ...

Ani painting her first diarama The subscription service business sector is exploding the online retail market. You can now buy toys, pet products, clothing, stationary, beauty products, eco-cleaning supplies, and even organic snacks all in monthly packages with excellent branding. While print magazines are slowly fading away, a new type of subscription purchasing is taking place in droves--for those who are too busy or depleted to run one more errand (hand raised here), you can get a fun surprise on your doorstep for a decent price. These are excellent as curriculum because all the work of planning and gathering has been done for you! Now it's just up to the child to execute and enjoy the process.  I have tried a few subscription services as either birthday gifts or a trial run for homeschooling, and let me tell you there are some awesome businesses going up! I want to highlight a few of them for you that can be used as homeschooling curriculum for elementary grade kids....

Last weekend we spent a delightful Saturday in downtown Vancouver for a few reasons: 1) If we ever go to Vancouver, a Lemonade stop is mandatory. 2) I wanted to go to the meet-up of Simple Bites blog author Aimee Wimbush-Bourque, to celebrate her new book Brown Eggs and Jam Jars . 3) ...and, if it's going to be sunny in February, we're going to Stanley Park . When I originally asked Stefan if we could make a trip into the city for the cookbook jam (see what I did there?), he said sure, and even though we don't ever celebrate Valentine's Day, I felt pretty loved that he'd take me there even though he had no interest whatsoever, and would have to watch the kids while I was at the event.  The cookbook was the one item I was going to ask him for for my birthday the following month, so I convinced him to get it one month early so I could have it signed at the event. The book is beautiful and full of so many good things besides the delicious recipes, l...

photocredit After years of putting it off, I've finally become a member of the instagram community. I must say, you people are beautiful photographers. It's amazing what a quick capture and a few great filters can do nowadays. I'm a really visual person and seeing lovely arrangements, crisp landscapes, and different color palette-mixing is quite an inspiration. I'm especially in love with all the foodie photos on instagram. I rarely have a cookbook in my cupboard that does not boast a picture-a-page, and it's for good reason. If I see it and it looks healthy and delicious, I want to make it, simple as that. Instagram is a great place for me to follow some amazing cooks, and although I follow most of these cooks and bakers on their blogs, I thought I'd share a quick list of my favorite {foodie} instagrammers, so you might take a peek, too, and find a new idea for dinner. * Aimee Bourque from SimpleBites.net has by far the best spreads. Her photo usuall...

An annual activity our family enjoys is strawberry picking. Nebraska strawberries can be a finicky thing, and the last couple of years we were living there a late frost or crazy storms destroyed the crop. We got a few, but not as many as years past. Last year, we came home with so many strawberries from Barbie's Berries out in Lynden, that they lasted until last month in the freezer! For every corn or cattle farm in Nebraska, is a berry farm in Washington. They're everywhere. Strawberries, raspberries, then blueberries, in that order, over the span of about 6 weeks or so.  We took our opportunity to pick a 10-lb bucket full of strawberries yesterday morning with some friends. They are so ripe, the juice stains the fingers within minutes. Ani, who loves strawberries more than any other fruit, had juice on her hands, shirt, pants, and backside! Every year she manages to get a stomach-ache from her indulgence! The strawberries were at their peak and probably had ...

not shown: grilled onions Stefan is the master meat-chef in our house. There is no hiding that I hate holding raw meat, and although I'll do it, I much prefer to pass that job off to him. Aside from bacon frying in a skillet, he makes the most tender, juicy meat dishes. I'll stay humbly at the table, doing the side dish. It's no secret, also, that our family loves Chipotle . When I say love, I mean " luuuuuuurrrvvvve " Chipotle . Like, love as in we asked about opening up a restaurant, until we found out they don't franchise.  Now that we live in an area where the closest Chipotle is an hour away (gasp! They are putting one near us in Bellingham, WA, of course right after we move), we have tried to recreate our beloved chicken burritos, rice bowls, and pico de gallo from the restaurant. What we've come up with is something with the basic building blocks of the healthy meal we enjoyed weekly, but with an entirely unique and amazing flavor, also ...

I am a connoisseur of salads. I like just about all salads, whether they are pasta, green, veggie, bean or otherwise. Let's just say I'm an equal opportunity salad eater. This recipe must be a regional salad, because I have never seen it nor heard of it before moving out to the Pacific Northwest. I have lost for 27 years of eating this salad, so of course now I make it a lot, gaining lost time. This salad has everything: flavor, health factor, color, and of course, bacon. You can skip the bacon for a vegetarian side-dish, and making it even healthier, but who wants to skip bacon?! I have sampled this salad from two different delis, and I like my own version of the two best. This is a simple, fresh, and crunchy salad with great flavor. Pea Crunch Salad Ingredients *2 small (or 1 large) bag of frozen peas, thawed, uncooked *3 celery stalks, chopped finely *3-4 green onion stalks, chopped *1/3 cup cheddar cheese *1/4 - 1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumb...

Salted caramels via the Barefoot Contessa . 

Source One of the easiest gluten free treats I make for our family is a simple banana bread. I have found a recipe that is 'no-fail' for me, always moist and hearty, can easily be doubled, is delicious with or without chocolate chips, and turns out great no matter what I substitute for odds and ends I don't have. My kind of baking. My favorite version is adapted from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, and it normally includes 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree. I almost never have that on hand, and so I just skip it. The way I make any baked good gluten free, when it's not a gluten free recipe from the beginning, is substituting 1:1 any flour called for with my own mixture of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Baking + Biscuit Mix , and Bob's Gluten Free All Purpose . I have my own canister of this mixture. I empty one bag of each into it, and mix until combined evenly. When I'm ready to bake anything, I just use that in a 1:1 ratio, and it has never f...

Source: designspongeonline.com via Eva on Pinterest Last year I discovered plutonium...in the form of a chocolate milkshake. I don't have a picture of this favorite treat, mostly because all of my cups are covered in mineral-y film from my dishwasher, and wouldn't capture the pure joy that is created in 4 simple ingredients. You can keep this vanilla or chocolate, but I prefer the chocolate rendition. I use an individual size cup that attaches to my magic bullet. If you have one of these, they make perfect little individual sizes, including a snack size option. It should be noted that this is only healthy in the fact that it has almond milk. The massive amount of ice cream and peanut butter should pretty much put this in the 'every once in awhile' category. I have about 2 a month, and I savor every.single.sip.! Plutonium Milkshake *3/4 cup of vanilla or chocolate ice cream *1/3 cup almond milk *2 TBSP peanut butter *1 tsp chocolate powder (optional, i...

photocredit As Stefan and I perused our first-ever ethnic market a couple weekends ago (I know, sad), we had in mind very specific recipes from The Indian Slow Cooker in mind. I can't remember if I saw this cookbook on a blog, on Amazon under my recommendations, or at the library. Where ever it was, I remembered to write it down and add it to my holds at the library (or pick it up? who knows) and I looked it over for a first glance at what I could make my family without being too...um...dissimilar? We love Indian food, but I have only had it a handful of times, and had certainly never cooked it myself before. I thought adding ingredients to the crock pot would be a perfect mix for my and my husband's palate and easy enough for me to not screw it up. Take that back. Yeah, the first recipe I did screw up, and it wasn't for ease of recipe instruction. It was simply because I'm an idiot at times. It was a basic yellow lentil dish and I added 4 cups of water too many. Yeah....

For those of you who have found (and love) Pinterest , this recipe got immediately 'pinned' to my foodie board, and was one of the few that make the cut into the kitchen. Back story. We always go out to Chipotle . Like, always. If my husband is around and there is some reason that we're going out, it's there. And although I love a good Chipots share, I also love other food (yes, that's right honey, look away!). One of the restaurants I love is PF Changs. The closest one is an hour away but whenever we have our kid-free weekends, I try to push for a slice of Omaha with a side of Lettuce Wraps. Please? Enough of that. When I saw the pin for make-at-home lettuce wraps I quickly repinned to my foodie board, and then printed out the recipe from the original website . I, ahem, did a few things differently as I lack the human will and determination to follow a recipe to the T. It's a character flaw that usually ends up on the positive side, more often than not. I'...

Source: cookingforseven.com via Renae on Pinterest Recently I stretched my foodie limits to include Indian cuisine. Okay so I made a pot of soup. But really, the main fare in this household are things we know and love, like imitation Chipotle-style rice bowls, raw summer meals, and of course corn bread salad. Our community group eats a pot-luck style meal every other week together and we try to have a cohesive theme. Enter Indian. I should note, also, that just about everyone else in our group are foodies, too. Either they love to cook or they love to eat well or both. I needed something easy and healthy to put on my repertoire. My friend R's pinterest board included a title of 3 things I like: Coconut.Chicken.Curry .(soup...okay four). I went to the site it was originally snagged from, Cooking for Seven , and made it for our guests. Here's the recipe, and as usual, I did not follow it well. If you want the original, click on the last link. My differences: more onion, more ...

photocredit Before I get started, I should warn you there is almost nothing redeeming about what I'm going to share. Whole foods? Out the window. This recipe is NOT healthy by any means, unless you happen to be using raw milk & cream to whip your cream. Seriously, even then, it would be masked by the massive amount of sugar. Just sayin'. Carry on. Ingredients *favorite hot cocoa mix (I love to make homemade mix, but I also like " Swiss miss " for prepackaged) * Torani' s carmel syrup * Smucker's Sunday Syrup (Carmel) *Whip cream *Kosher or Flake Salt (not table salt!) *Milk Grab your favorite mug and begin by adding the carmel (torani) syrup to your mug. These are good starting off points, because you can always add more: 2 tblsp for 12 oz, 2 1/2 for 16 oz, 3 for 18+ oz. This amount gives just the hint of that carmel flavor without it being too sugary. Set aside. Next heat your milk on the stove or in the microwave (90 sec on high) until pre...

When you make a dish almost (if not definitely) weekly , it needs to be shared. It's begging to be eaten and loved by your friends, family, and um, everyone else. A lady at my church has been recently opening her house to a few new friends and I get to be one of them. She is a fantastic cook and loves to entertain, and frankly, I love to eat and be entertained! Awhile back she made this as a side dish and I haven't stopped making it since (she gives us all the recipes for everything she makes those nights). I must have made it at least 10 times since late February. That is not an exaggeration, either. Without further ado, I give you the best side/salad dish ever: Corn Bread Salad ! *1 loaf prepared cornbread, left out for several hours (you want it harder) *1 red onion, diced *1/2 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled *1 tomato, diced (optional) *2 jalapeños, seeded and minced *1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded *3/4 cup celery, diced (I usually add 1 or 1 1/2 cup, love the crunchy texture...