Sara Jane: Thankful tree and Chicken Curry

November is always the month that I take a little more time to think about those things in my life that I truly am thankful for.  I know I'm not the only one because my Facebook feed is full of what everyone else is thankful for, too. :)  I enjoy reading what others are grateful/thankful for.  It makes me smile.

When my oldest, Penelope, was just a little baby, I started a thankful tree and have been doing it ever since.    It is nothing fancy.  I simply cut out a brown tree trunk with a few branches and then everyday in November, we each write something (or in Penelope's case, 5 somethings) we are thankful for on simple little leaves.  Our first tree was very small.  Now, with five of us writing thanksfuls on it, the tree has become quite large.  It takes up the entire side of my refrigerator.  Not the prettiest site to see but it warms my heart whenever I see it.

The tree looks quite bare right now but by the time November is through, our tree  (and refrigerator) is  overflowing with leaves.

Now, the fun part.  When November is through and it is time to put up all my fun Christmas decorations, we carefully take off all the leaves and put them in a labeled box.  Each year we have done this, I have simply put the boxes in storage.  This year, however, we are going to wrap the small box up and make it into an ornament on the Christmas tree.  I really think it will be fun to someday look at these when my children are grown.

Now that Penelope writes, it is really fun to help her spell out what she is thankful for.  

I can't leave with out sharing with you my favorite recipe.  Chicken Curry.  I never knew I liked chicken curry until several years back when we went to our friend's house for dinner and they served it. It was like love at first sight! Amazing! After this heavenly meal, the search was on for the perfect chicken curry recipe that I could actually make. While trying to use up a gift card at Borders, I found a rather intimidating Indian cookbook called The Complete Book of Indian Cooking.  It is now the ONLY curry recipe I use.  The recipe may look overwhelming at first, but don't be fooled. If you can follow directions, then you can make this recipe. The spices can be found at most supermarkets. I buy mine in bulk at a specialty store but I have also found them at Safeway and Albertson's (they just tend to be more expensive there).  If you really can't find the spices locally, try this ordering them online here.  The spices that are in this recipe are always in my cupboard now and I do buy them in bulk to make sure I ALWAYS have them.  I have made this recipe probably 100 times and have altered it a bit so I will give you my version of the recipe.  Here you go....

Chicken Curry

Ingredients:
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cloves
6 green cardamom pods
1 piece cinnamon stick (2 inches long)
3 whole star anise
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed (If you buy already minced garlic like I do, I add 4 teaspoons)
4 tbsp mild curry paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp five-spice powder
3 lb chicken, skinned and chopped into bite size pieces 
14 oz. Canned tomatoes, chopped
4 oz. Creamed coconut (sometimes I add an entire 14 ounce can for a more mild, soupy curry)
 2 cups fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a pan at a medium high heat and fry the cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon stick, star anise, and curry leaves until the cloves swell.  About 5 minutes should do the trick.  You will know its ready when you can smell all the spices.
2. Add the chopped onion, and garlic and fry until the onion turns light brown. Add the curry paste, turmeric and five-spice powder and fry until the oil separates.
3. Add the chicken pieces and mix well. When all the pieces are evenly covered, cover and cook until the meat is nearly done. 4. Add the chopped tomatoes and the creamed coconut. Simmer gently until the coconut dissolves. Mix well. Fold in the chopped fresh cilantro, then reheat and serve hot.  I never find that this needs salt but if yours does, then add it.

We usually eat our curry over rice but lately it just feels like too much food so I eat it as a soup instead.  If you are feeling extra adventurous, try this naan recipe.  It is delicious and goes excellently with the curry.

We had extra tonight, so we gave some away.  

One last thing before I end my longest post EVER!  One month ago, we acquired our dog, Jack.  I have never really been a fan of dogs but seeing that my husband and children all wanted one, I thought it was probably time we get one.  We looked for months but couldn't find one that went well with our family.  Then one day, everything fell into place and Jack moved in with us. This dog is incredible.  He is gentle (well as gentle as a 105 pound boy can be) with the children and follows me everywhere.  He has melted my heart. So, today, I am thankful for my new buddy, Jack.  He has been the perfect addition to our family!

Sara Jane: Berry Crisp

For the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to serve a sweet friend of mine, who has been in need of a little extra TLC, by taking her dinner.  My sweet friend is gluten intolerant so I have challenged myself to find delicious recipes that are within her strict dietary guidelines.  I have had so much fun doing this.  You would think that cooking for 6 extra people would be difficult but it really has been so easy and quite relaxing.  I don't know how else to describe it.  I have LOVED every minute of it and have found some pretty yummy alternatives to foods we eat all the time.  I will be compiling the recipes I have made along with some other delicious finds in a blog for my friend.  I am sure she won't mind me sharing the blog with you when it is finished.

With each yummy meal, I have tried to make a dessert that goes along with it.  I usually alternate between a fresh fruit dessert and a gooey chocolate dessert.  Yesterday, I made a creation that I know isn't new to anyone but it was so tasty last night at 10:00 PM that I have to share it with you.

Berry Crisp

I call this "Berry Crisp" because you could use any berry in it and it would still be delicious.  We happen to have raspberries so that is what I used.  I would just make sure to adjust the amount of sugar you use if you use a less tart berry, like a blackberries or blueberries. 

The only way this crisp is really different from other crisps I have made is that I didn't use flour in the topping.  Last week, I made my friend an apple crisp and used quinoa flour in the topping.  I didn't like the after taste that the quinoa left so I omitted that this week and actually enjoyed it better than my usual crisp topping.  

Ingredients:

4 cups berries (I used frozen berries from this summer; fresh would be delicious, too)

1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you want your berries)

2 Tablespoon cornstarch 

1/2 cup melted butter

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375*.

Toss your berries with the cornstarch and sugar, coating the berries. Set aside.

To make the "crisp" topping, combined your oats and brown sugar.  Pour your butter over the oats/brown sugar and mix together.  It should be very clumpy.  If it isn't, add more oats until it is.

To assemble the dessert, I filled small jars 1/2 way full of the berry mixture and then topped them with the crisp mixture.  When you have both in there, you should have your jar about 3/4 full.  Leave some room so when the berries start bubbling they don't over flow.

I put the full jars onto a pan (to catch any runaway berry juice) and cooked them for about a half hour or until the topping was nicely browned.

Since I was taking these to my friend and not eating them right away, I let the jars cool for about 10 minutes and then capped the them with a lid and a band.

* I find that when I make berry crisp with just sugar, the juices are too runny.  The cornstarch thickens the berry juices giving it more of a sauce feel.  If you don't care for that consistency, omit the cornstarch and just use the sugar.  

*If you feel like you need more or less of the oats, sugar and/or butter for the topping, then adjust to what YOU like.  We like a lot of oats in our topping so I tend to put a bit extra in.

*Since I knew a jar portion would be too little for my hubby, I cooked his crisp in an cereal bowl that was oven safe and it was the perfect portion for him. 

I really am so grateful for the opportunity to serve and hope that I can always serve with a happy heart, even if it doesn't involve food :)

Loves

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Felt Pumpkin Bags

***Giveaway is now closed***

Have I told you how amazing my/our mother is?  Well, she is.  She always has been, too.  She was the mom who was always volunteering in the classroom.  She would give demonstrations at school on how to make bread or sew an apron.  She made (back when you could take homemade treats) birthday treats for the class when our birthdays came around (keep in mind she had 7 children).  She was very involved in PTA (her fundraisers funded the new playground when I was in elementary school).  She was/is amazing!

One of the fun things I remember her doing for at least a few of my school classes were pumpkin bags for Halloween.  She would spend hours cutting and sewing the bags and then stuff the cute bags with little treats and plastic spiders.  

A few years ago, I came across one of my pumpkin bags from my childhood.  At this time, Penelope was just beginning to understand how fun Halloween and other holidays were.  I made a pattern off of the bag, made 10 bags, and then Penelope and I took them to her favorite people (I think one actually made it back to my mom).  We had so much fun doing it that it has now become a tradition in my family and I hope to someday get to take a tray of them to my children's classes.

With special permission from my mother, I am going to share these bags with you.  Here we go...

First, you will need black and orange felt and ribbon for the handle.  My mom always used green ribbon so that is what I have used. First, cut out a pumpkin, a mouth, a nose and two eyes.  For the nose and eyes, I just cut random triangles so each pumpkin was different.  If you would like a copy of the template I used for the pumpkin and the mouth, either leave your email in a comment or email me at fivecraftysisters@gmail.com and I would be happy to send one to you.  I could not get the template uploaded.  Next, using your hot glue gun, glue on the eyes, nose and mouth making sure to leave enough room for a seam.

Next, you sew the pumpkin together, making a bag.  A few things to remember: (1) be sure to add the ribbon into the first few stitches, (2) make sure to back stitch the beginning and end and (3) make sure to keep the top open - You may be thinking "duh"...I've sewed the top shut before :)

I had quite a difficult time sewing these little guys this time around.  My thread kept breaking, my needle broke....needless to say, these bags are in no way perfect but I am sure the children who receive them will still love them.  I tried hot gluing the pumpkin pieces together and it worked really well.  I just like the look of the black thread on the orange felt :)

When you are finished sewing, this is what your bag should look like.

We like to fill ours with our favorite candy and I always add, just like my mom did, a plastic spider ring.  This year, we are also adding Dracula teeth.  

Penelope can't wait to hand out her favorite little goody bags.  

Now for the giveaway that I promised back here...

I will be giving away TEN pumpkin bags to one lucky reader (treats not included). 

All you have to do to be in the running to receive these is leave a comment on what your favorite holiday tradition is in your family.  This giveaway will close at 12:00 AM on Saturday morning.  That way I can mail the bags to you in time for Halloween.

 I hope you guys enjoy these bags as much as we do around here.

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: DIY Gifts

I am one of those annoying people who has 99% of their Christmassing (yes, that is a word in my home) done December 1st EVERY year.  I do if for two reasons: (1)  I LOVE the entire process of buying/making gifts and then giving them to others and (2) So I can really enjoy the entire month of December and focus on the family traditions that we have created within our own little family.

During the year, when I am out shopping, I am constantly thinking of who would like what.  Two years ago, I had my children's entire Christmas done in January (there was a fantastic sale I could not pass up).  This year, however, I have been slacking soooooo, I thought I would share with you some of the projects I have recently started working on for Christmas.  I love doing homemade gifts, especially for my children, so I can personalize the gift for the person who will be receiving.  Here are a few that I've started....

1.  Car Caddy
2.  Doll with carrying case
3.  Mini Coloring Tote
4.  Magnetic Scrabble Board
5.  Little man ties
6. Sticky Grams (such a cute idea for grandparents!)

I just finished one super simple gift this weekend and wanted to share it with you.

I went to our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore this weekend looking for materials that would inspire me to do something crafty.  This store is one of my favorites!  Not only do they serve a pretty incredible purpose but they have random parts and pieces that you can't find anywhere else.  We got our beautiful claw foot bathtub at our ReStore for a steal!

Anyway....while there, I discovered their tile section.  After holding a tile for probably 3 or 4 minutes, I remembered seeing a coaster somewhere that a person had made from a tile and some modge podge.  Perfect!  I grabbed a few tiles (only $0.10 each!) and headed home.

For this coaster project, you will need, tiles (however many you want to make), mod podge (mine is homemade - Just a 50/50 mixture of Elmer's glue and water), decorative paper, felt, a clear high-gloss spray paint (not pictured), and a hot glue gun.

First, cut your paper so that the paper squares are just slightly smaller than your tile.  Next, paint your tile with a thin layer of mod podge.  Place your decorative paper on top of the tile/mod podge.  Paint another layer of mod podge over the decorative paper.  Allow to completely dry (I had them dry over night) .  Finally, spray a coat of clear high-gloss spray paint on top.  To finish off the coaster, cut out felt squares to line the entire bottom of the tile (I simply traced the tile onto the felt) and glue them on with the hot glue gun.  So simple and they turned out really cute.

There are so many ways that you could personalize these coasters.  I will be making some for a certain family member that will have pictures on top of the decorative paper.  Another fun thing you could do is to first paint the tile and then add paper/pictures.  Or, how about adding stickers to say something fun.  The possibilities really are endless.

Until next week...

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Spray Paint

A few years back, I discovered spray paint and all the fun, amazing, creative ways that you can use it.  My last spray paint project was our TV stand.  It is BRIGHT yellow and so very pleasant in our family room.  I haven't used spray paint in quite a while though so I decided today would be a good day to get reacquainted with my old friend.

For this project, I went to our local Goodwill store and found these three great pieces:  two tins (each $0.99) and one ceramic rooster ($1.99).  Then I headed to Joann's (which happens to be next door) and picked out a few colors that I liked.  If you don't want to spend oodles of money on spray paint, Walmart has cans for only $0.99!  Its not the most quality spray but it works fine.

Anyway, here are the three pieces I bought today:

First up was the rooster.  I have a special place in my heart for roosters.  Last year, we bought four chickens.  My chicken's name was Mrs. Pettitoes.  She was absolutely beautiful but one Sunday, when we came home from church, she was crowing at our back door and we realized that Mrs. Pettitoes was actually a MR. Pettitoes.  I was sad....

Anyway, I love roosters.

For my rooster, I wanted him to be a deep red.  To start, I sprayed my first coat and let it dry for about 15 minutes.  Then I sprayed another one.  Remember to use short, even sprays for the most even color.  After that coat, I only had to do a few touch up sprays in little cracks and here is how he turned out...

We don't have a permanent home for him yet but I am hopeful that he will have a nice place in my kitchen one day soon.

Next up were my tins.  I have seen spray painted tins all over Pinterest lately so I thought I would give it a try.  Well, the first tin (the one with the handle in the picture above) didn't turn out so well.  Since it is rather hideous (very gloppy and runny), it is now a small trash pail in the backyard for the kids.  The second time, I remembered to slow down and take my time (something I am constantly reminding myself of).  This one turned out perfectly!  For this tin, I sprayed very small areas to start. It took me about three coats and about 30 minutes to get it just right.  It turned out the perfect color and really transformed the tin.

I will definitely be spraying more tins around the holidays to use as the wrapping for gifts.  I love how they look!

Since I had this beautiful tin, I decided that today was a good day to do the cookie of the month for my father-in-law.  I tried out something new and loved how it turned out.

Using my favorite pie crust recipe, I made little cookies (simply make the dough and shape it how you like, sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the top then bake them at 450* for about 7 minutes or until lightly browned).

While I could eat pie crust all day long, I know not everyone likes it so I put a small jar of some pear jam my husband just made in the middle.  We had to test everything out before we gave them away and let me tell you, they were scrumptious!  It tastes exactly like you are eating a bite of pear pie.

I have decided that I will one day soon make an entire platter of these pie crust cookies and then put out all my favorite jams - blackberry, strawberry, pear, peach- and just eat pie all day.  Yummmm!

Happy crafting, my friends!

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Pumpkins!

Hi friends!

From now until January, be prepared for way too much excitement in my posts.  Like I told you last Wednesday, I LOVE everything about September, October, November, and December.  I love all the food, the decorations and the overall excited/giving spirit that most people seem to have.  

I'm not sure if it is the changing of the seasons or what but I have had way too much happiness in me the last few weeks.  Its the kind of happiness that all you want to do is turn the music up way too loud to sing and dance.  Yesterday, I tried to channel that happiness into something productive for the blog.  

We have had this huge pile of wood sitting outside of our house since July.  A lot of it is wood we picked up from my in-law's house, the pallets were delivered to our house by a friendly neighbor, and then there are just lots of scraps of wood from some remodeling we've been working on.  Hmmmm, what could I do with all this wood???  PUMPKINS!

This project was so easy.  I went through our huge pile of wood...

and found a few random pieces that I thought would make cute pumpkins.  I also I had my sweet hubby cut a few little pieces for the stems. 

Then came the painting.  I had a few little helpers for this part.  For their pumpkins, they painted then entirely orange.  For my pumpkins, I did the first coat white.  When that coat was dry, I painted an orange coat on top of the white.  For the stem pieces, I simply painted them green.

When everything was nice and dry, I distressed the wood with a piece of sand paper.  If you don't like that look then just omit this step.  Next, using my glue gun, I glued a piece of thin wire, which I curled, and the green "stem" to the top of the pumpkin.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  When I finally dig my harvest decorations out of the attic, I will decorate with leaves but for now, these will simply sit on my mantle as they are.  They brighten up my living room....I LOVE them!

I never feel like my posts are complete until I share with you a favorite recipe.  Today, I thought I would share with you a recipe my sister-in-law, Micky, gave me.  Gingersnap Pumpkin Pudding.  I have seen several recipes similar to this one but I have not liked any of them as much as I do this recipe.  It is always a hit when I have it at parties.  I use it mainly as a dip for gingersnaps or fruit although I am positive you could eat it by itself.  It is absolutely delicious.  We have it several times during the fall.  If you love all things pumpkin, you must try this gingersnap pumpkin pudding!

GINGERSNAP PUMPKIN PUDDING

Ingredients:

* 1 3/4 cup cold milk

* 1 package instant cheesecake or vanilla pudding mix (the small box)

* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

* 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

* 3 gingersnaps, crushed

* 1 cup whipped topping

Directions;

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix together for 2 minutes.  (I use my electric mixer for this part).  Stir in the canned pumpkin and the pumpkin pie spice.  Let stand for a few minutes or until soft-set.  Fold whipped topping into pudding.  Sprinkle the crushed gingersnaps on the top. 

There you have it folks.  Have a great rest of your week!

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Eating from the Garden

Hi everyone!  I hope you are all having a fabulous week so far.  

While I was out weeding my herb/salad garden this week, I noticed I had some beets that  needed to be picked.  They were huge.  Probably the biggest beets I have ever seen.  Down the row, I also saw some beautiful lemon cucumbers that were ready.  Two of my favorite garden foods.  What to make???

My SIL introduced me to this little piece of heaven a few years ago and now we have it all the time.  During the summer, you will ALWAYS find a few logs of goat cheese in my refrigerator JUST for this salad.  It is delicious!

Ingredients:

*2 large (or three medium) beets, peeled, cubed, cooked and cooled (I cut mine into 1-inch cubes, boiled for about 15 minutes or until I could stick a fork in it easily and then cooled in an ice bath.)

*1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

*2 regular cucumbers (or 5 lemon cucumbers), peeled and cubed

*Goat Cheese (since we like Goat Cheese a lot, I would use 3 ounces per salad.  Use as much or as little as YOU like)

* 1/4 cup Rice Vinegar

Directions:

In a large bowl, toss together the cucumbers, beets and red onion.  Splash the vinegar on top (again...if you want more, use more; if you want less, use less).  Break your goat cheese into small pieces and distribute throughout the salad. Finish with salt and pepper.

After making this yummy salad, I decided to make a sandwich to go with it to.  In my refrigerator, I had a huge bag of basil from our local CSA.  Pesto!  I have never made pesto before but I know I love it.  One of our local bakeries makes a delicious walnut pesto so that is what I tried to make.  I looked through a bunch of recipies on line but nothing caught my eye so I decided just to go for it and experiment.  Here is what I did.

Pesto

Ingredients:

*1 1/2 to 2 cups basil leaves

*2 T minced garlic

*1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (Not a traditional item but it was the only cheese I had :)

*1/2 cup walnuts

*1/2 t salt

*1/2 to 3/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

I crammed as much basil into my little Cuisinart Food Processor as possible, dumped in the garlic, shoved in the cheese and walnuts and somehow managed to get the top on.  Once I turned on the food processor, I drizzled the olive oil through the top opening.  It seems like you are using a lot of oil but it doesn't actually come out to that much.  Keep adding oil until it is to a consistency that you like.  I like my pesto with a little crunch so I don't do it as fine as others.  

If you have made too much pesto and need to do something with it, try freezing it.  Instructions here.

Okay, so my pesto is done.  The rest is simple.  

My favorite sandwich at one of our local grocery stores, Harvest Fresh, is a turkey sandwich with pesto and sprouts.  I didn't have any sprouts on hand but I did have some left over cucumber that I thought would give the sandwich the perfect crunch.  Here is how I assembled my favorite sandwich.

Two slices of your favorite bread (mind is a honey wheat bread).  Pesto on one slice of the bread, mayonnaise on the other slice.  I grabbed some butter crunch lettuce from the garden, added a few turkey slices, then added my cucumber, a few slices of red onion (from my previous salad), slap it all together and you get this...

I have to say, this sandwich was so fresh and tasty.  Even my husband, who is not a huge turkey fan, really enjoyed it.

Finally, I couldn't leave this post without telling everyone how excited I am for Allison and her sweet little Norah.  Whenever anyone I love has just had a baby, I am slightly jealous of them only because I know how wonderful those first few days can be with a sweet little newborn (I do, however, know, first hand, how hard they can be so I am not too jealous :).  Beatrix was by far my snuggliest baby (and she still is) and I LOVED every minute of it so I hope you (Allison) are getting some restful snuggle time in with your sweet new one.

I thought I would share with all of you how to make my favorite little girl head bands.  With Penelope, I didn't really use a lot of stuff in her hair.  I'm not really sure why but it just wasn't my style then.  With Beatrix, however, I went all out.  I had a hard time finding headbands for her little head though so I decided to try and make them.

I had some wonderful pictures to show you all, step by step, how to do this but I have misplaced my card reader (in the last 10 minutes) and cannot figure out where it is.  If I ever find it, I will post the pictures.

All you need to do to make the greatest headbands ever is first to find a cute elastic (I found some at Joann's).  After you have your elastic, measure the babies head and subtract about 1/2 to 1 inch from that total (depending on how tight you want it to be....don't make it too tight, please....I hate seeing lines on babies heads from where their headbands were too tight).  Cut your elastic to the number you have figured out.  Using a hot glue gun, glue the ends of the elastic together.  It is seriously as simple as that.  I have received so many compliments on my girl's head bands.  They are also perfect because you can clip flowers or bows directly on the headband instead of the hair (just in case your cutie pie baby doesn't have hair).  My older daughter uses Bea's headbands still when she has her hair up in a pony.

I have another headband trick I wanted to show you but I'm afraid I'll have to wait until I find that stinkin' card reader.  (It is just one that I can't really explain without pictures).  Oh, I thought you might also like to know that Beatrix has misplaced my keys as well.  As soon as I get off this computer, we are going to have a search party for the keys.  Sometimes all you can do is laugh!

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Summer Quesadillas

It has become a tradition, on both my side of the family and my husband's side of the family, to have our annual family reunions during the summer on the Oregon Coast.  This past week, we went to the coast for my in-law's family reunion.  It was the perfect vacation.  We built sand castles, played in the freezing ocean water, went to the touching ponds, watched a meteor shower and ate delicious food.

Penelope touching a giant sea cucumber (slug) and star fish at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Uncle Doug helping Ash in the touching pond.

 While on the family reunion, we each take an evening to make dinner.  For my dinner, I made hominy curry (since we have several vegetarians in the family). It was fantastic!  I'm not sharing that recipe yet but I will.  Instead I am sharing my SIL, Olivia's recipe.  She made the most delicious quesadillas with sweet potatoes, goat cheese and chard (I know at least one sister is gagging at this point).  I don't usually like sweet potatoes and never like chart but LOVED this meal.  In fact, I made it again last night only I used kale instead of chard because that's what came in our CSA.

Here we go...

SUMMER QUESADILLAS

Ingredients:

2 purple onions, thinly sliced
2 sweet potatoes
1 T garlic
4 ounces soft goat cheese, at room temperature
1 package tortillas (I used the ready-to-cook kind you can buy at Walmart), cooked
1 bunch of kale, chopped (any green will work)

Directions:

Slice your sweet potatoes into 1-inch thick medallions.  Place on a baking sheet and bake at 300* for 30 - 45 minutes, until soft enough to smash.  They should look something like this when they're done...

Cook your sliced onions in a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 10 to 15 minutes).

When your onions are ready, add another tablespoon (or 2) of oil and add in your kale.  If it looks like a lot, don't worry.  It will cook down.  Add a few tablespoons of water and cover with a tight fitting lid.  Occasionally stir.  Cook for about 5 - 10 minutes.  It should look something like this when its done...

Take the potatoes out of the oven, peel off the skins and smash, like you would regular mashed potatoes.

Cook your tortillas.

When tortillas are finished, spread goat cheese over one side of two tortillas.  Next, on one tortilla, spread a thin layer of sweet potatoes over your goat cheese.  Then add a generous helping of the kale/onion mix on top of the sweet potatoes.  Finally, add the second tortilla, goat cheese side down, on to the top.

Slice with a pizza slicer and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Sara Jane: A Bavarian Feast and Outdoor Waterbed

I will apologize in advance.  This is going to be a LONG post.  We have had a really fun week and I wanted to share all of it with you.

First up...the food (of course!).

For this week's Olympic meal, I made German food.  Normally, we wouldn't eat this type of a meal in the summer (we're mostly veggies around here) but we HAD to for the Olympics, right?

For our Bavarian feast, we had sausage, latkes, fondue and pretzels.  This is another rather time consuming meal but if you're up for it, I would recommend it all the way.  It was absolutely delicious!  

Here we go....

LATKES 

(Potato Pancakes)

Ingredients:

2 large potatoes, peeled and shredded (I use regular baker potatoes.  After I shred the potato, I set them aside in a bowl of cold water to prevent them from changing color.)

1 medium onion, diced

1 egg

2 Tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil, plus 1/2 to 1 cup more for cooking

Directions:

Combined oil, onion, egg, flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt, and about 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl.  Add drained shredded potatoes until combined.

In a skillet, add enough oil to be about 1/8 inch thick on the bottom.  When the oil is hot, using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop cup fulls into the oil.  I usually only cook 2 or 3 at a time as to not overcrowd my skillet and lower the oil temperature.

Cook the latkes until they are a deep golden brown (about 2 to 3 minutes per side).  When they are done, remove them from the oil and drain on a paper towel.  Sprinkle with salt.

If you are not going to eat them right away, keep them warm in a 200* oven.

Traditionally, these are served with apple sauce.  I prefer mine by themselves.

These pretzels are delicious.  I searched and searched for a good recipe for pretzels and found one several months ago.  It is mostly the recipe I am about to give you but I can't remember where I found it.  I changed a couple of the amounts of ingredients.  It is a very basic recipe that I have never had turn out badly.  Try it.  You won't go back to your old method...I promise!

HOMEMADE PRETZELS

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tablespoon of yeast

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 to 4 1/2 cups of white flour

1/2 cup baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 475*.

In a large bowl, combined the water, yeast and sugar.  Let proof for 3 to 5 minutes, or until frothy.  Add flour, one cup at a time.  If, after you have added the 4 cups of flour, the dough seems too sticky, add another 1/2 cup.  Knead dough for a few minutes until nice and smooth.  You can let the dough sit or use it right away.  

In a large pot, boil 4 cups of water (or about half a pot full) and 1/2 cups baking soda.  Add the soda to the water BEFORE you turn on the burner.  If you add the soda to the water after the water is boiling, you will have a huge mess.  Trust me :)

When you are ready to begin, cut off small (about golf ball size) pieces of dough.  Shape them how you like (sometimes we just do pretzel sticks, especially if we are dipping them into cheese) and drop them into the boiling water/soda.  Boil them for about 30 seconds.  Most of the time they will float to the top when they are ready.  Again, do not put too many in the pot at once.  A few at a time.  Once they are done boiling, place them on a greased cookie sheet.

When your sheet is full, cook them in your preheated oven for 8 to 9 minutes, until golden brown.  When they come out of the oven, you can brush them with butter (or not) and sprinkle salt (or cinnamon sugar) on them.

My kids love pretzel dogs.  If you want to give those a try, simply wrap a regular hot dog in a rope of dough, boil for 30 seconds and cook for 8 to 9 minutes.

Sorry folks.  I don't make my own sausage.  I wish I did but...I don't.  We buy our favorite sausage at our local grocery store and cook it until it is ready.  Its that simple.  

As for my fondue recipe, I simply used the cheese from my mac and cheese I made here.  

Just in case you were wondering what was going on while I was making this delicious dinner....

Bea found some water AND dirt! Lovely!

Next up...I've seen the outdoor waterbeds all over Pinterest lately so I thought I would give it a try, too.

Here's what I used for my waterbed.  Gorilla tape (next to the duct tape at the store), 2 heavy duty shower curtains and a pair of scissors.

If you have an old water toy that has one of these nifty hose hook ups, cut it out and use it on your waterbed.  It made filling it SO much easier!

To start, I laid my shower curtains out flat on my family room floor, one on top of the other, and then I started taping. It took about 30 minutes to tape the entire thing together.  After taping each side, I would then tape the inside too to prevent too much leaking.  When I got to the fourth side, I cut a small hole out for my hose hook up, placed the piece in the hole and taped all around the hook up.  Then I finished taping the fourth side.  Before I began filling the bed, I went back over my tape job to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Then I started filling.

After a good 20 minutes of filling, the bed was finally ready for the kiddos to play on.  

At first, the kids just enjoyed laying on the bed.  I purposely put the waterbed in the shade so it would stay cool.  It was perfect.

 Then a leak sprang.  No worries, Bea was there to catch all the water.

 After a few hours, we did need to refill the bed but it was totally worth it.  If you have the time, I would definitely recommend making your kids one of these before the summer ends.  It provided hours of fun for my babies.

Sara Jane

Sara Jane: Fish and Chips

At our house, we are very excited that the Olympics are FINALLY here.  We all stayed up to watch the Opening Ceremony and ever since, the Olympics are always on.

To celebrate the Olympics, each week we are going to make a dish representative of a country in the Olympics.  First week....England (Great Britain), of course!

This week we made Fish and Chips.  This is kind of a big deal for me because I really don't like fish.  Everyone says, "Oh, but you will love the way I cook it."  AND....I never do.  I just don't like it but everyone else in my family does so...here we go.

For our Fish & Chips dinner, I also wanted to add onion rings to the mix because, well, I could eat my onion rings all day.  Because onion rings are delicious fresh out of the oil or after they have been sitting for a few minutes, I made them up first.  The recipe I used is actually my dad's recipe.  I have eaten these onion rings since I was a child and they ALWAYS turn out.  For tonight's onion rings, I used Walla Walla Sweet onions (Have you ever used Walla Walla's?  They are fabulous!).  Also, my dad uses Saltine Crackers but we never have those around here so I used Ritz Crackers and I really liked the buttery flavor they added.  With permission from my dad, here is the recipe as was told to me by my dad for our family cookbook...

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil, for deep frying

2 large onions sliced approximately 1/2 inch wide.  Punch out the holes leaving individual rings.

1 to 2 cups flour

2 cups milk

Worchestershire sauce (Optional)

2 eggs

1 sleeve of Saltine (or Ritz) Crackers, crushed

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

Dip rings in a milk bath and then in flour.  Allow them to dry.  (I dry mine on a cooling rack).

When rings are dry, add eggs, Worcestershire sauce (I never use this), salt and anything else you want to try to the milk bath.

I like to set up a station doing the next part.  It can get really messy if you're not careful.  First, dip rings in the new milk bath and then individually into the crushed cracker.  Pat crushed crackers so that they cover the entire ring.  Periodically sift the crushed crackers to get rid of the little goobers that start to accumulate.

Carefully drop a few onion rings into the hot oil (I had my oil between 300* and 350*) and cook until golden brown (a few minutes).

Take out cooked onion rings and drain on a paper towel or newspaper.

Next comes the french fries.  The best homemade french fries take time.  Give yourself time!  

Ingredients:

Vegetable Oil, for frying

3 Bakers Potatoes (I used three and my family of 5 couldn't eat all of the fries)

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

For my fries, I like to use Bakers Potatoes.  I grab the potatoes that are the longest.  

First, I pealed the potato and then sliced it into long sticks.  Next, I put the potato sticks into a large bowl of water and let them sit in the refrigerator for about 3 hours until I was ready to use them.

When I was ready to make my fries, I heated my oil to 350*, drained the potato sticks and then dropped the them into the oil  (small bunches at a time...the oil bubbles up a lot so be sure not to overflow the pot).  I then gave the sticks a little stir so they didn't stick to each other.  Fry them for 1 - 2 minutes.  Remove and let drain on a rack.

After all the potato sticks are done frying, raise your oil heat to 375* and, again in small bundles, drop your fries into the oil again, this time frying for 4 - 5 minutes.  Remove from oil and let drain on rack.  Salt.

The fish was the last part of the meal I did.  It cooks so quickly and is best eaten when it is still hot (in my opinion).  When I do eat fish, the only fish I can stomach is white fish.  Our grocery store had some lovely cod so hesitantly I grabbed two fillets and went for it.  Having never made fish before, I went to THE man in the kitchen...Tyler Florence.  I found this recipe by him that looked easy enough.  The changes that I made are in green.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for frying

• 2 cups rice flour (I used regular white flour)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons salt, plus more for seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
• 1 (12-ounce) can soda water
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 (8-ounce) cod, cut in 1/2 on an angle
• 1/2 cup rice flour, for dredging (Again, I used regular white flour)
• Malt vinegar, for serving

Directions

Heat 3 inches of the oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F. Alternatively, use a deep heavy skillet.

Crank the oil temperature up to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Combine soda water and egg and pour into the flour mixture. Whisk to a smooth batter. Spread the rice flour on a plate. Dredge the fish pieces in the rice flour and then dip them into the batter, letting the excess drip off.

Carefully lower the battered fish into the hot oil. Fry the fish for 4 to 5 minutes until crispy and brown. Remove the basket and drain the fish on paper towels; season lightly with salt. Serve wrapped in a newspaper cone with malt vinegar and/or tartar sauce.

Give these dishes a try and remember...its okay to make mistakes in the kitchen.  I have thrown entire pots of concoctions out before because they didn't turn out how I liked it.  That's how we learn. 

Enjoy!

Sara Jane