christmas crumble

The boy patiently (sort of) counted down the days until Christmas. We made cookies and decorated a gingerbread house.

The boy tried to convince us to open presents before Christmas.

And finally it was Christmas Eve. We put out hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and waited for Christmas Day. While we wouldn't have known by the weather that it was Christmas, ie wet and grey, we had a lovely day.

The boy loved his new bike

and the rest of his presents. He assembled his many new Lego kits all by himself and played his new Angry Birds game for hours.

For Christmas dinner, I wanted a lighter version of our usual mincemeat pie. Lately I've made a lot of crisps based on Deb's recipe for Apricot Breakfast Crisp and my husband gobbles them up. So for Christmas, I made a Christmas crumble with mincemeat and apple. Lovely.

Christmas Crumble (Mincemeat and Apple Crumble) - inspired by Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

2 Gala apples, peeled, cored, finely diced
1/2 jar of mincemeat
grated fresh nutmeg
4 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c flour
2 tbsp sliced almonds

In a medium casserole, mix the apple and mincemeat. Add a few gratings of fresh nutmeg.

In a bowl, mix together the sugar, oats, flour and sliced almonds. Add the melted butter and mix well until blended. Pour over the mincemeat mixture in an even layer.

Bake at 400 deg F for 30 minutes until browned and bubbly.

time flies by

It occurred to me the other day that our boy is almost done with his first year of kindergarten. How did that happen so fast? 

We’ve had our challenges this year, everything from our boy not being all that keen to work on printing “it’s too hard”, to emails from the school about little boy transgressions (too many of those). But we’ve had fun too, concerts and projects

 and discovering math and parties and outings and birthday parties and word games and quoi de neufs to get ready for (show and tell). This month’s subject is “what do I want to be when I grow up”. Our boy has a whole list from tank/plane/warship driver to all kinds of sports playing – tennis, hockey, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. I’m not quite sure which one(s) will make the grade for his actual presentation and drawing. We have a couple of weeks to figure it out. 

Along the way our boy has developed a fascination for the Titanic, warships, sharks and airplanes. I should say that the warships and airplanes he comes by naturally as my husband loves these as well. So my guys spend lots of time building Lego ships, warships, planes, etc. And then the small boy sinks them in the bath or runs them over with a big truck or something and they start all over again. The most surprising new interest has been our boy’s sudden and recent passion for sports. He’s played soccer for two years and loves it and adores swimming lessons (all that diving and splashing). This year there are the school yard games of tetherball, handball, freeze tag, and something I think called “backshoe backshoe”. Earlier in the spring he started playing ball hockey in his after-school club boy “gang” and became extremely interested in hockey which lead to watching baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and car racing. He always wants to play hockey and lately has taken to “versing” us for a game after supper. The rules are somewhat flexible and seem to favour him highly but it is all fun. Although my man and I are somewhat at a disadvantage with the tiny sticks. The boy also discovered tennis rackets in the garage and now wants to “verse” us in tennis (and teach him how to play at the same time). Due to the sudden hockey fascination I signed the boy up for field hockey.

 It is very funny to watch about 8 boys and 65 girls all on the same field. The boys tend to stay in a pack and do things like hook their sticks into the net and hang off it like monkeys or chase each other around the net, while the girls are either doing all their drills or cart wheeling down the sidelines. He’s also doing Sport Ball and Bike Camp with his after school club. And for summer we have a week of skimboard/skateboard camp, tennis camp and soccer development, in between weeks of regular summer camp with trips to water parks, beaches, bike rides, zoos, etc.

 Last night, during Lego construction (after the hockey game), the boy and his dad got into a heated discussion about the placement of radar on the deck and structure on his Lego warship. The boy wanted the ship radar to be bigger and more prominent than the airplane radar. All of this leaves me completely at a loss. I count myself lucky that I can distinguish between different types of warships (frigates vs. aircraft carriers) but that is about it.

 Which leaves me my roles as driver, snack carrier, equipment manager, school liaison, and backpack stocker, event and play date coordinator? And of course, dispenser of hugs, cuddles and band aids. It’s good to know where I stand.

lego and a tank cake

If you'd looked up the word apprehension in the dictionnary last week, there might have been a photo of myself and my husband. We were building up to panic through the week, at the prospect of 18 of our boy's 5 and 6 year old friends invading our house for a couple of hours. Yes, we'd invited them, but still, the prospect was daunting. We kept saying "it is only for 2 hours". It seems that kindergarden is a big year for birthdays and a few of our boy's friends have had parties for the whole class. Our boy really wanted to do that as well. I looked into various options for entertainment and venues but in the end I came up with this - a party at our house with entertainment for the children. I hired a fantastic guy who came with a ton of lego and a friend to help him to play with the kids for most of the time. (I'm not linking to his site mainly because he isn't currently booking parties but if you live in the Vancouver, BC area and are interested just leave me a comment and I can forward you details.) I also begged some mum friends to stay while their kids played (ok, I also plied them with wine to make it more palatable).

So, the party has come and gone. Everyone seemed to have fun, no-one got hurt and my husband only had to use a bit of carpet cleaner solution afterwards. I think it also helped that I've learned a few things and applied them to this party. When I started planning the party, I was initially only going to ask the boys. But in speaking to a few mums about the idea of a lego party, they all seemed enthusiastic and it did seem a bit mean to not ask the girls in our boy's class as well. Especially, as my husband pointed out, that our boy had been to several of their parties. But I did think that I would set up a place where the girls could go if they go legoed out, with a roll of art paper and crayons. And as we moved the furniture in the living room mostly into the dining room to make a clear space for the lego to be, we had a big seating area in the dining room - very squashed but cosy. I kept it simple with the party food with things that had worked well at other kid parties - crackers (I went with the ever popular Cheese Bunnies), a veggie tray with dip, sliced fruit (melon, apple, strawberries and grapes), homemade bagel bites and a bowlful of yogurt tubes. I'd never seen yogurt served at a kids party before but it is one of our boy's favorite foods and I thought it might be a good idea as it is a self contained serving. They were very popular, especially with kids who'd never had them before.

The lego guys arrived early, and set up quickly with all kinds of fantastic lego creations - I'd requested the City set with airport and space add ons. They had lego apartment building, hospital, bank, police station, pizzeria, airport, airplanes, stations, a huge crane as well as all kinds of lego vehicles, people and an array of space plants, stations and robots. They also set up a lego train set with a set of controls and had trays of block for the children to build things with. It was quite an impressive set up.

 I did wonder how all the children would fit in but they all did. And after the initial excitement on seeing it all, the kids settled down to a dull roar. They played with the lego, some came and snacked and some made their way upstairs. The girls did a giant birthday card for our boy with the paper and crayons and some found a game to play.

The parents who stayed perched around and had wine and snacks and chatted. It was great. When the lego time was up, the kids moved to wash their hands and then onto the snacks. It was very crowded in our dining room but no-one seemd to mind. Once everyone was done with hand washing, I lit the cake candles and our boy (with the help of some of his friends) blew them out and the kids had cake.

And then it was time to go. They all got a balloon and a goodie bag and off they went.

Afterwards, we cleaned up, moved the furniture back to where it normally is and had a supper of mostly leftover veggies and fruit. One of our favorite moments from the party was when some of the boys (including mine) decided to put all the Lego girls in jail and one of the girls found out about it. "We have to rescue them!" and the girls all banded together and trooped in to rescue the Lego girls from the police jail.

stuffing acorns

Is it my imagination or are the squirrels absolutely huge this winter? I know our fence is in rough shape but when some of the neighbourhood squirrels run along it lately it seems to bend. I guess it really is time to get a new fence. And the construction project would maybe distract our boy from his current obsession – the Titanic. He built a lego version of it last week, has been reading one of my husband’s books on the ship and been talking about it non-stop. Last night he was in tears because he “missed the Titanic and will never see it ‘cause it sank”. Oh dear. Never mind that he wants to listen to the “Titanic song” – My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion over and over and then sing it with me when I put him in bed.

But onto something else – I really came here to tell you about a stuffed squash recipe I came up with. I do have to say that I was watching a cooking show on our local PBS station a few weeks ago and a woman did something similar to this although I didn’t get the recipe or really pay attention to what she put in hers. My version is vegetarian but you could make it vegan by leaving out the butter and cheese or add some chopped leftover ham or bacon if you have a die-hard meat eater in the house. You can either stuff halved squash and bake them or peel the squash and mash it into the bottom of a casserole dish and layer the stuffing over the top and bake.

Baked Stuffed Squash
2 acorn squash
1 c cooked brown rice (I used a brown rice/wild rice blend)
2 tbsp butter
1 medium onion, sliced (optional, I didn't use it the second time I made this)
8-10 mushrooms, sliced
1-1 /2 apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 big handful toasted pinenuts
¼ tsp sage
Grating of fresh nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 c grated cheese (choices are gruyere, sharp cheddar, smoked cheddar, etc)

Microwave the squash for about 10 minutes. Halve the squash and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and place in a baking dish.

Meantime, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions (if using), mushrooms and apples and cook until tender and slightly brown, ~ 10 minutes adding the sage, some salt, pepper and a grating of nutmeg about halfway through the cooking time. When tender, add the pinenuts and rice and stir well to blend. Add most of the grated cheese and mix again.

Season the squash with pepper and a grating of nutmeg, then stuff the rice mixture into the squash centers, mounding the filling. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top.

Bake at 350 deg for 40-60 minutes, until the squash is fork tender.

OR

Baked Squash and Rice Casserole

Prepare the squash and filling as above. Scrape the squash pulp off the squash peel and mash into the bottom of a 9x13 greased casserole dish and season with pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Layer the stuffing over the squash and sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the dish.

Bake at 350 deg for 40-60 minutes.

unbaked casserole

green potatoes and ham

Green potatoes and ham is what I came up with for dinner last night. And apologies to Dr. Sueuss for the name, which came to me while I mixed everything up. Friday night supper is always a bit of a minefield as the end of the week usually finds me tired and not inspired to cook and on the night prior to our weekly shop, somewhat lacking in ingredients or imagination. So faced with making a dinner out of some leftover ham, a couple of leeks, some mushrooms and a bag of spinach, I did this. If I'd had the time, it would have been stuffed baked potatoes but I was hungry. So I boiled the potatoes, made a spinach pesto just using spinach, a bit of minced garlic and enough olive oil to whiz the spinach into a pesto.

While the potatoes drained, I sauted the mushrooms and leeks until tender, add the ham and potatoes.

Then I mashed the potatoes into the vegetables and mixed in the spinach pesto and a bit of sour cream to blend. And recalling this recipe, added a dollop of dijon mustard and parmesan cheese. Dinner done. And it was good. And gave my guys time after dinner to complete the lego destroyer they were working on.

a bit sticky

Have you seen the cover of the December issue of Bon Appetit? I have that cookie fest issue and after having baked a few dozen of our favourite cookies the other day, I was left with 4 medium egg whites. And a requirement to bake gluten-free (preferably) cookies for a Kindergarden Christmas party. So I thought I would whip up some of these peppermint meringues.

The mixing was easy. It was the piping that was my downfall. I even bought a piping bag and tip so it would be easier. I should have stayed with the Ziploc bag method. But I did learn a few things in this experiment. I learned that I need a BIG piping bag, not the tiny one I was trying to work with. And meringue in its uncooked state is sticky.

the first ones worked well



the second sheet was a bit messy and I had bits all over the place

I could say I was distracted by the construction of a warship and helicopter nearby but that isn't really the case.

But all is not for naught. I did end up with 3 trays of blobbish pink meringue dots. The early ones (when the piping bag thing was going well) are stripey.

The end ones are uniformly pink and may have to be drizzled with chocolate to tone down the Barbie effect.

It remains to be seen how well Kindergardeners like them. And how well meringue washes out of wool sweaters. (note - Kindergardeners loved these cookies. )

around our house

A few pictures of life around our house. These were taken a couple of weeks before Christmas.

T was painting when I got home one afternoon - this is his picture of a whale. The big red splotch in the middle is the big whale tummy, with the whale teeth on the left (pointy, pink) and the whale tale on the right.

T wanted to make cookies using the Christmas cookie cutters. In an effort to save time, I thought I hit upon a brilliant idea - use chocolate chip cookie dough. So I rolled out the dough and we cut out the shapes and baked them. Oops! Not such a great idea - the shapes spread into unrecognisable shapes. I managed to recut some of them so T wasn't too disappointed.

The mail that day included a parcel for me - a present to myself!

I tell myself I had to get them to qualify for free shipping for the gifts that also came with these books...

T made lego things and played with the cow

(well, the cow was licking my sweater!) and I tried to put together a snowflake garland.