What do you see?

Probably a Dad and his two children playing the wii, right??? Wrong!!! There are actually two more adults playing with them. That's right Shane and Jen are playing with them, from their home in another state. Technology can be very cool sometimes! I'm not sure which games you can play like this. On this particular evening they were playing Mario Cart. We all just thought it was the coolest thing, and wanted to share. So if you want to play the wii with us sometime, let us know.

I also wanted to post our recipe for pumpkin pancakes. I posted this on facebook a very long time ago, and forgot to post here. This recipe got a lot of positive feedback. The original recipe came from Martha Stewart, but I made some changes. Enjoy!

Whisk 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder;

1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg;

a pinch of ground cloves.

In a separate bowl, stir together 1 cup skim milk,

6 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree,

2 tablespoons melted butter,

and 1 egg; fold mixture into dry ingredients.

Melt some butter in a skillet over medium heat; pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side; serve with butter and syrup.

xoxo

Rach

50 cookbooks

The Book: Best recipes from American Country Inns and Bed and Breakfasts, Kitty and Lucian Maynard

From: Brian P. for a birthday a few years ago. This is what he wrote in the front cover; Rachel, Happy Birthday! I love you and appreciate all you do to make our family work. You make us all happy. I think our marriage is special because we care about each other all day, everyday from Breakfast to Bed and back again. :) This why I thought this book was the perfect gift. I love you! Brian P.S. Check out pg. 449 (The bed and breakfast we stayed at on our honeymoon.)

I have to be honest, I have hardly used this cookbook. It certainly is not for a shortage of recipes (over 1500)! I have tried a couple but nothing very exciting. I am happy to say that I did find a winner in this one. We really liked these waffles, even Katie who is not a fan of breakfast food. As I was making these our home smelled like cake (see the ingredients). Brian thought they were nice and crispy on the outside. I will make these again for sure.

Recipe:

Amish Waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour (sifted)

1 1/2 cups skim milk

2 1/2 tsps. baking powder

2 eggs, well beaten

5 tbs. melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix in order f lours, milk, baking powder, eggs, butter, and vanilla, just until smooth. Bake on a hot waffle iron according to manufacturer directions.

We served them with maple syrup.

The recipe comes from COUNTRY GARDEN BED AND BREAKFAST. They don't have a website but here is their info if you are interested. 805 1st Ave West Williston, ND 58801 (701) 774-9643. I have never been their myself, so I can't say anything about the Inn. The waffles though...GREAT!!

If you are interested we stayed at the White Lace Inn for our honeymoon. We have been back there once since. We have stayed in the main house and love the orchard and the Old Garden Roses room. It is sooo pretty, take a peak.

Have a great week!

xoxo

Rach

Weekends with Julia~Crepes

It has been a rough week around here. Isn't it always difficult to get back into the swing of things after break!?!? As my former supervisor in admissions used to say "re-entry is hard." To make matters worse, it has been terribly cold here. Due to the weather, I have been dropping Brian off at the bus stop in the mornings. This means, I need to get up earlier, and start my routine. It is just way too cold, dark, and slippery for him to walk those six blocks. He says he doesn't mind, but I insist. Katie said, I had dark circles under my eyes this morning. That is what concealer is for sweetheart...it would help if I remembered to put it on! And on top of it all, I'm have been working on a huge project at work! I have roughly a week to complete it. This wouldn't be so bad if I worked full time, but I work about 20 hours a week. I usually don't work on Fridays, but guess where I will be. I might even need to come in on Saturday! Well at least it is Friday, but really I can't wait for Tuesday.

Tonight we are getting together with my sisters and their families for chili. I'm looking forward to relaxing and laughing with them. It is something I have been looking forward to during this long week.

On a complete different subject, let me introduce "Weekends with Julia." When Brian and I were first married we attended seminary out east. On our campus was a small building called the Give and Take. The name sums it up well. People were allowed to take anything they wanted, and were able to give as well. It worked out well as you can imagine, because people were moving in and out. I always headed to the books, hoping that I would find a great cookbook. I was doing plenty of deep theological thinking...I needed something to do in the kitchen. On one particular visit, I found volume 1 and 2 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. I really didn't know what I had found, but I remember watching Julia Child on television as a child, and knew that she made a huge impact on the culinary world. Well, I'm embarrassed to say those two books have sat on our cookbook shelf and really not been used much. So we talked about making one recipe from volume 1 each weekend throughout the year. Now, this is no Julie and Julia project. We might miss some weekends, and really we are just doing this for fun, because we like to cook. We thought you might enjoy our adventures with Julia so we will blog about our creations.

I decided for the first recipe to try French Pancakes better known as Crepes, or Pate A Crepes (Crepe batter).
Our whole family loved these! I was a little concerned that Katie wouldn't care for them because she isn't into eggy flavored pancakes. She thought they were great, and even helped make some on her own. You can make the batter the night before, which I would encourage. I made these on a Saturday morning and you must let the batter rest up to two hours, needless to say we were all rather hungry by the time they were all finished. We used a variety of fillings. Raspberry preserves, nutella, bananas, syrup, and powdered sugar. We will add these to our Saturday morning breakfast repertoire for sure. Thanks Julia!

Next week, Brian's up. That's right friends, mr. amazing will be reporting on Soupe Au Pistou (Provencal Vegetable Soup with Garlic, Basil and Herbs).

Have a great weekend friends! Stay warm and cozy!

xoxo
Rach

"Uncle" Shaney and "Aunt" Jen came to town

Shane's family lives here in the big city. So they decided to come and spend the holidays here. We asked them to come for dinner the Wednesday before Christmas. We had a great time, and they stayed until the wee hours of the morning (1 am).

Uncle Shaney, torturing Ian while he plays mario cart.

Three cuties

Shane...what more can I say.




A little secret.

We decided on a simple dinner: Salad, homemade pizza, and gingerbread cookies. Here are the recipes:

Our Favorite salad

1 bag of spring mix lettuce

Dried cranberries

candied nuts

blue cheese crumbles

balsamic vinegrette

Toss together and enjoy!

Our favorite pizza dough recipe. We have made the pissaladiere before, but it really wasn't my thing. Brian really likes this recipe because, he likes a thick crust. We made one veggie pizza, and one with pepperoni.

Gingerbread cookies.

We make these every year at Christmas. I chill the dough roll it out, cut, and bake.

xoxo

Rach

Bits of encouragement

summer 2009

Daddy comforting Ian after losing a game of 500.

I was reading in my devotions the other day about God's consistency in our lives. It made me think about God's never ending LOVE for us. Isn't it amazing. He is always there when we need him, and even when we don't think we need him. When we try things our own way, and when we turn our backs on him he is still there. Not only is he there, but with open arms. Like a parent with their child. He is our constant our CONSISTENCY.

Because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Hebrews 13:5b

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Encourage each other~

Rach

#3

Well it finally happened...the third tooth fell out. He was wiggling it and wiggling it, and then he said to Brian, "Dad after supper I want you to pull it out." Brian is the official tooth puller around here. So they went into the bathroom, and shut the door. Katie and I were busy cleaning up in the kitchen and we heard a AHHHHHHHHHHH! Oh no, I thought. Ian has never cried when he has had a tooth pulled. Then he came running out and at the top of his lungs said "OH MY GOSH!" He was so excited, and there was not a tear shed. Afterwards, Brian said the AHHHHHHHHHH was not pain but Ian's reaction to the way he looked after the tooth was pulled. The next morning, bright and early Ian woke up and ran into our room. "Guess what, the tooth fairy left me two John F. Kennedy's!" Of course today it was back to school, and guess what he shared about during "sharing time." We have a pretty excited boy around here.

I also wanted to share with you what my friend Shana made for me.

In November I had seen a really cute banner on etsy. I immediately thought I should ask Shana if she could make me one. Shana has her own business called 5 eleven design, and she makes SUPER cute stuff out of paper. So she made me one that said GIVE THANKS, and apparently I didn't take a photo of it. I also asked her for one, that says HAPPY NEW YEAR. Isn't the cutest!!!! So go check out her blog. I'm thinking I might need one for February.

xoxo
Rach

Resolutions for 2010

I decided to check out how "Webster" defines resolution, well there are nine definitions. The second one seems to fit what we think of when we think about the new year. 2) a. a resolving, or determining; deciding b) the thing determined upon; decision as to future action; resolve.

Here are my resolutions from 2009:

1) Make birthday cards with my photos (I made a few, but didn't get very far.)
2) Start a book club (Yes, it has been great!)
3) Read (I'm not quite sure what I meant by this, maybe I didn't read that much in 2008, I certainly did this year.)
4) Take photos (having a blog, really helped on this one.)
5) Eat healthy (I would say for the most part we do, and we made some changes.)
6) Exercise (We got the wii fit shortly after Christmas, and it is fun. I did well for about 6-8 weeks and then stopped. We tried running for a little while and then it got cold. So this one didn't really get fulfilled.)

Here is what I have decided for 2010:

1) Start a woman's Bible study (if you are interested, let me know.)
2) Be a better steward of our natural resources (I'd like us to compost more in the winter, stop using so many paper napkins and paper towels, line dry clothes etc..)
3) Educate myself and family about the food we consume (join a CSA, buy pasture feed meat.)
4) Exercise on a regular basis ( I need to figure out what this means for me and how I fit it into my routine.)

Kitchen goals for 2010, these are both Brian's and mine:

1) Make one new recipe out of every cookbook we have as of the New Year ( I'm not sure how this is going to go. We have over 50 cookbooks, but we will try!)
2) Start a new series on our blog called Weekends with Julia ( We are going to try to make one Julia Child recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking each weekend.)

Happy New Year friends!!!!
Rachel