Count-Croque

There is so much to say about this delicious sandwich. But a few warnings:

Don't think this is for the person who is looking for a flavorful, yet healthy Grilled Ham'n cheese. Uh...not in any way is this masquerading as healthy. 

Also....well, no I guess that's it. It ain't healthy.

 

This was created out of a craving for a butterhorn danish. I saw a photo on pinterest of a Croque Monsieur and thought it was on a toasted butterhorn and thought "OMG that is BRILLIANT!!" 
Alas, it was on a mere croissant and not the danish I was thinking. 
And so I made my own.
A Croque Monsieur is just a fancy Grilled Ham and Cheese sandwich. Sometimes it is served with a Bechamel (white) sauce. 
A Monte Cristo is a ham, swiss and turkey sammy dipped in egg batter and fried then served with powdered sugar and jelly. 
This sandwich is sort-of a cross between the two.
I bought a package of breakfast danish, heated up the danish and ham on a griddle, then layered ham and baby swiss cheese between the two danish.
Yum!
 no wait....YUM!!! 
Don't look at the danish calorie count. It will make you cry. Just eat the sammy and enjoy.

Banana Bread - YUM!

I decided to bake.

I don't bake in my house...that is Mr. Dude's area of freaking-deliciousness, but I thought I'd silently step into that role while he was at work. And I had very ripe bananas sitting on the counter.
Taaaa-daahhh! Beautiful and OMGeee, the best tasting banana bread in the world!  

I have to confess...I don't like Mr. Dude's banana bread, so I did have some motivation to get baking. I can't really complain without giving it a shot. 

Here are my secrets:
1) Cream the crud outta that sugar and butter (and don't microwave your butter to soften it)
2) Use Really REALLY ripe bananas for extra sweetness, and smash them REALLY smooth
3) [borrowed from Mr. Dude] sugar your bread loaf pans

sugared mini-loaf

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3 ripe medium-sized bananas or 4 small bananas

1 Tbsp. milk

2 large eggs

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 ½ cup all purpose flour, ½ cup KAMUT flour (or whole wheat flour)

1 tsp. aluminum-free baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

 For sugaring the pans:

1 1/2 TBS salted butter (1/2 Tablespoon each for mini loaves)

3 TBS Sugar mixed with 2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F. convection oven (adjust temperature as needed for regular baking)

Add salted butter to pan(s) and place in oven to melt for 5 minutes, as oven warms. Remove pans, tilt pans to coat with melted butter. Add cinnamon-sugar mix and tilt to coat, let excess settle at bottom of pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas smooth with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon.  Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined.  

In 2nd bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and bake 65 minutes for large pan, (35 for mini pans) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing. 

 

 recipe adapted from Food-Network's non-chef affiliated banana bread recipe

Baking mix

My Helper

Sometimes we do quick and easy around here....but mostly we try to eliminate those processed foods. One of the easier ways for me to do this is to make a large batch of biscuit/pancake/waffle mix and keep it (in an oatmeal container) in the refrigerator for easy access. 

  
I made the batch in the picture with mostly whole-wheat flour. The boys didn't bat an eye, but I really didn't like it (I just don't like 100% whole wheat flavor.) I'll try it with Kamut flour next time.

Large Batch Baking Mix

3 cups whole wheat flour 
1 3/4 cups white flour
1/4 cup cold milled flax
6 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar (I used Sucanat**)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened


Mix all in Food Processor until mix is pebbly. Refrigerate for up to 5 weeks.

Directions for mix:

 Biscuits: 

Mix together 1/3 cup of milk for every 1 cup of mix. Bake @ 450ºF  (410 convection) for 10 min.

Note: Add any additional ingredients you wish such as cheese or herbs before adding the milk.

 1 cup of mix will yield about 6 biscuits.

Pancakes: 

Mix 2 cups of mix with 1 cup milk and 2 eggs. 

  

**Sucanat is essentially pure dried sugar cane juice  While it is a sugar,  vitamins, minerals, and molasses are not displaced during the processing of the product. 

Healthy(ish) Scones

My boys love scones (and so do I) so I thought I'd oil my rusty baking skillz and bake some scones. Since Mr. Dude does all the baking around here, the boys were overjoyed and surprised when I presented these giant, healthy-ish scones to go with lunch.

 Other than the butter I didn't feel bad that they were eating all this sconey-goodness!

Lady J’s Scone recipe

2 cups flour: I use ½ cup white; 1 cup whole wheat and ½ cup Kamut flour*

½ tsp. nutmeg (I double when using predominantly wheat flours)

2 tsp. sugar

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

8 TBS softened butter

¾ cup buttermilk (see photo)

1 egg- beaten

Combine all ingredients. Knead sparingly on lightly floured surface. Press dough into a circle 3/4” thick and cut into 8 pie wedges. Sprinkle tops with raw sugar and place on lightly greased sheet

Bake at 400/ (375 convection) 12 minutes

 

* I use Bob’s Red Mill brand. Kamut flour is a form of durum wheat originated in Egypt. It is considered to be less allergenic than common wheat and contains a unique type of gluten that is said to be easier to digest than common wheat gluten.

 Kamut is more nutritious than regular wheat due to a higher protein and potassium content. It has a rich "buttery" taste which makes it a good substitute for white or whole wheat flour.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (34 g)

Calories 110 Calories from Fat 0 Total Fat 0 g 0% Sodium 0 mg 0%

Total Carbohydrate 24 g 8% Dietary Fiber 4 g 16% Protein 4 g Iron 4%

Summer is off to a great start...so far we have a few things crossed off our list:

Tae Kwan Do

Ian showing directional kicks

planting a veggie garden

homework goals

reading goals

Starting a 2nd Spanish group

zoo trips

Bike riding

Swimming Lessons

Park Rec activities


One thing we started here is Mr. Piggy Meals

Mr. Pigg visits at dinner at helps keep little piggies in-line. If someone happens to lunge across the table for second helping I cheer place Mr. Pigg in front of them quietly letting them know how to correct their behavior.
At first, it nearly back-fired. Everyone wanted Mr. Pigg to be in front of them. They were being gross on purpose!
Then Ian started sobbing that he didn't want to be the pig. So I took one for the team and burped and had the pig infront of me. The older two were openly guffawing. Momma burped!
The next night it was a little less fun...especially when Dawson had to help load the dishwasher.
And finally, they big ones learned that if they ate their dinner quickly, they stood less a chance of ending up with the pig...because they were done and they ate with good manners.
It's working...I'm pleased.

Summer Time Preface

It's almost summer....though today you'd hardly know it by the dripping of the rain. 

We are planning classes, camps, events, get-togethers, crafts, vacations and yes, homework.

our list so far:

Tie-Dye T-shirts

art-lit via this book: Color your own Masterpieces

a trip to Bullwinkle's for golf

join the World Forestry Center

the Rice rock museum

planting a veggie garden

make paper

updating out blogs more diligently

homework goals

reading goals

make stepping stones (our friend Finn has been waiting for this for 2 years!)

water balloon fight!

Starting a 2nd Spanish group

zoo trips

Beaverton Farmer's Market

OMSI

Oak's Park

Bike riding

hikes

AG Gilbert House

Beach Trip

Swimming Lessons

Fountain Fun

Pool trips

Youth Group Activities

Church Carnival

Camp-outs in the Back Yard

Lunch with Dad

Saturday Market

Park Rec activities

Berry Picking

jam making

Our summer is going to be FOF!! (Full of Fun)

 

 

May the Fourth Be With You! Freezer Paper style

In honor of Star Wars day, we made "epic t-shirts" (so quoth the boys.)

We used the freezer paper method which I will try to explain:

First, I found stencil images on google, by googling star wars stencil images and printed them out (resizing as necessary)

Then I tore off a sheet of freezer paper found on a roll like waxed paper in the foil & waxed paper section of most large grocery stores. My box is made by Reynold's Wrap.

One side of the freezer paper is waxed and one is matte. Trace the image on the paper/matte side and cut out the negative space (the space you want paint) Yay...you made a stencil!

(Make sure your t-shirt is clean/washed. I mention this because we had to buy a new "blank" t-shirt for Ian because we didn't have any in his size...I had tie-dyed all of them last summer! There aren't any pictures of his in-process because I not only had to wash and dry the new t-shirt, but I did two layers of paint-what a mess!) 

Get out your iron, pour out the water and turn it to the hottest setting and let it get good 'n hot.

Iron the stencil wax-side down onto the t-shirt. I promise, you are NOT ruining your t-shirt. 

If you have small cut out portions go nice and slow and get all the paper ironed down so there isn't any bleeding.

Once it's all ironed down get a piece of cardboard or some folded newspapers out of recycling and put inside the t shirt to keep the paint from seeping through and gluing the t-shirt layers together.

Painted Yoda

Using a sponge brush, paint on your fabric paint, dab first then go ahead and spread it out evenly.

 

 Let the paint dry for about 2 hours. If you need to paint two or more layers, make sure you let the paint on the paper dry or your paper will get soggy and will break as you tear it off. Then you get mad and might speak in colorful languages. Just sayin'.

creepy Yoda eyes

Slowly pull up the freezer paper and Voila! There it is...your own custom t-shirt!

I linked up to:

http://www.733blog.com/2012/05/what-are-little-boys-made-of-110.html

Random Wednesday

These are the random things I have to post today:

What I'm listening to right now

 

http://jasonmraz.com/news/2012/love-is-a-four-letter-word/

listen to it now:

http://rd.io/x/QVB4kSJJryc

What I recently photographed:

What I want to do this week: find some balance.

What I should be doing with my time right now: vacuuming and changing light bulbs.

I hope you enjoy your day.