Creamy Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 leek, chopped, white part only
1-2 carrots, peeled and diced
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 zucchini, diced
1 bunch broccoli, chopped
water, vegetable broth, or some combination of both * see note below
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil (leave out for a fat free soup)
salt
pepper
1-2 bay leaves

Alternate veggies to add to your soup:
Yellow squash, diced
Parsnip, peeled and diced
Turnip, peeled and diced
Cauliflower, chopped
Corn kernels, fresh or frozen
Sweet potato, peel and diced
Winter squash, peeled and diced
Peas, frozen
Fresh chopped Swiss Chard or Spinach added at the very end shortly before pureeing so you don’t overcook it. If using Swiss Chard, do not include the rib, just the leafy part.

Optional ingredients for a creamier tasting soup:
Milk, heavy cream, yogurt, or sour cream…
We usually bring a container of sour cream to the table, and my family members will add a dollop of sour cream to the bowl if they wish to. Alternately, you could add a bit of heavy cream or milk before you puree the soup with the immersion blender.

Directions:
1) Fill a large soup pot with your chopped vegetables. Add just enough water/vegetable broth to cover your veggies.
2) Add your butter or oil, salt, and pepper and stir.
3) Add your bay leaves to the pot. I try to make sure the leaves are at the top where I can keep an eye on them so I can easily pull them out before blending.
4) Bring soup to a boil.
5) Once the soup is boiling, cover the pot with lid and reduce heat to a simmer.
6) Simmer soup for 10-15 minutes until all the veggies are cooked through.
7) Fish out and discard your bay leaves.
Using an immersion blender, puree soup to desire consistency. I purposely leave a few large chunks in my soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can carefully pour the soup into a blender and puree in batches until you reach the desired consistency of your soup.

*Note about liquid: I usually use water and then add a few tablespoons of Vegetable Better than Bullion Base. You can use just water, but broth will make a more flavorful soup. I find that it isn’t necessary to use ALL veggie broth for the liquid since there are so many vegetable being used already.

First up…PIG!

Enjoy!

Pig
Number of players:
You need at least 2 players. Up to 4 or 5 players can still move along fairly quickly, but for larger numbers of people, you will probably want to find more dice and divide up into smaller groups.

What you need to play:
You will need at least 1 six-sided die, paper, and a pencil or pen. If you are good at mental math, you may not need the paper and writing utensil for the basic game. More than one die is necessary only if you are playing with a larger group of people and want to divide up, or if you want to try one of the variants that requires more dice.

Goal of game:
The goal of the game is to reach 100 points first (or whatever number of points you have determined ahead of time).

Game play:
On a turn, you will repeatedly roll a die until you either decide to stop rolling OR roll a one.

Keep a running total of your dice rolls until you decide to hold. Once you decide to hold, write down your total and pass along the dice to the next player. During subsequent turns you will add to this number, trying to be the first to reach 100. If you roll a one at any time, your turn ends, and you score zero points for that turn.

Scoring Examples:

Player one rolls a five, a four, a three, another three, and then a two and then chooses to stop rolling and passes the dice to the next player. Player one’s score for this turn would be 5+4+3+3+2 which equals 17.

Player two takes up the die and rolls a two, a three, and then rolls a one. Since a one was rolled, play immediately ends for player two, and he scores no points this turn. Poor player two…

Player one takes up the dice again and rolls a five, a five, and then a two before deciding to hold. His score for this turn would be 12 which he would then add to his previous turn’s total of 17 for a grand total of 29. Not too shabby, player one…

End of game:
Game play ends when one player reaches a score of at least 100 points.

Alternate end of game:
A final round is played once one player reaches at least 100 points. All the other players are given one last turn to either tie or top the leader’s score.

Variants:

Variant 1: Make the six the “bad” number instead of the one. This variant would make the addition a little simpler for younger players since you would only be adding up ones through fives.

Variant 2: Roll two dice each turn, instead of one. Dice are added up as in the original game to produce a score; however, with two dice your chances of rolling a one are greater. Once you roll a one on either die, play ends and you score zero.

Variant 3: Roll two dice each turn, instead of one. Dice are added up as in the original game to produce a score. However this time, once you roll a one on a die, that die is retired for the rest of your turn. You can continue rolling with the remaining die until you choose to hold and take your score, or you roll another dreaded one which ends play for that turn and gives you a score of zero.

Variant 4: Roll two dice each turn, instead of one. Dice are added up as in the original game to produce a score. In this variant, double ones rolled are very, very bad, and you lose all of the points you have scored thus far in the game, including points earned from previous turns.

Variant 5: Roll two dice each turn, instead of one. Dice are added up as in the original game to produce a score. However this time, doubles are our friends, even if they are double ones. A single one however will still end your turn and score you a big zero. Points scored for doubles are as follows:

Double ones = 25 points
Double twos = 8 points
Double threes = 12 points
Double fours = 16 points
Double fives = 20 points
Double sixes = 24 points

You probably want to raise the end goal from 100 points to 200 points in this variant to accommodate the possibility of larger points scored in a single roll.

Variant 6: You are given six dice (or as many as you can manage to scrounge up from under the couch) each turn. You can choose to roll as many dice as you wish, keeping in mind that ANY “one” rolled will end your turn, and zero points will be scored for this turn. If you roll three or more ones in a single roll, you lose all of your points scored thus far, including previous turns. If you roll ALL ones in a single throw, you have to give your opponent a foot rub.

Steve and Tobin posing before heading into the water for their last swim lesson of the spring

This spring was Tobin’s first time through level 1 classes. He had previously taken baby and preschool classes but those were more water orientation than real beginner swim lessons. Although he hasn’t passed on to level 2 yet, the little guy made quite a bit of progress this session. He learned to float on his back, doggy paddle, and push off from the side of the pool. Unfortunately, Tobin has decided those few skills are enough to qualify as actual swimming, so he tries to practice on his own when the instructors are working with the other kids. This wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that he is too short to stand in the water and still keep his head above water! He appears to have absolutely no fear of the water, so Ken and I spend just about every minute of his swim lessons biting our nails and edging closer and closer to the pool “just in case.”

Blowing kisses to me from the pool

Stephen passed on to level 4 swimming several sessions ago. However, he isn’t interested in learning dives or swimming in deep water, so he has been repeating level 3 which is supposed to be swim stroke development. His person goals for swimming are to build up his stamina and perfect his swim strokes, but the instructor for the current session spent a lot of time having the kids practice diving. For example, today the instructor only had the kids swim two laps in the whole 45 minute class. I don’t think she ever went over any swim strokes other than the front and back stroke all spring long either. Stephen was very disappointed with the whole experience. In the future, I will probably need to arrange for private lessons for him.

Goofing off with dad before class

When I asked, my mom listed off the various ingredients she uses when she makes her minest…ham bone to flavor the broth, chopped smoked sausage, assorted greens such as collard greens or endive, etc. As my mother described how she makes her soup, I felt I could practically taste it over the phone, and I couldn’t wait to make my own pot soon. However, Steve is both a vegetarian and my big soup eater in the house, so I knew if I made the minestra exactly as mom suggested, he would miss out. So I tried to think of ways to tweak the recipe so that the soup would both recall those childhood memories of mine and still be vegetarian fare.

Below is the recipe for my first attempt. I swapped out the meat-based broth for veggie broth, of course, and traded out the bits of meat for white beans. For greens I went with dandelion greens because there was a huge, beautiful bunch of them at the grocery store, and escarole because it looked good too. Next time I might try kale and bok choy.

The soup got a thumbs up from three out of four family members. Tobin wouldn’t touch it as the only soup he’ll eat is miso.

Vegetarian Minestra recipe

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
32 ounces vegetable broth
1 can cannellini beans, well rinsed
1 can navy beans, well rinsed
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon parsley
¼ teaspoon rosemary
Dandelion leaves, well washed and roughly chopped
Escarole, well washed and roughly chopped
Parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:
1) Drizzle some olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot. Sauté onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the oil for 2-3 minutes, stirring around to keep vegetables from burning.
2) Pour in vegetable broth.
3) Add both cans of rinsed beans and crush some of the beans against the side of the pot with a spoon. This will give a nice texture to your soup.
4) Add salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, and rosemary. The amounts are just suggestions. Adjust to your particular tastes.
5) Bring soup to a boil and then turn down heat.
6) Shred dandelion leaves and escarole and add a bit at a time to the pot. If you are fond of greens, add lots of both. Cook until greens are softened.
7) Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Notes:
1) If you can’t find dandelion or escarole, try other greens such as collard greens, kale, bok choy, etc.
2) For a more filling soup, cook up some small pasta such as ditalini, orzo, elbows, or acini di pepe and add to soup before serving.
3) Serve your soup with a nice salad and some crusty bread. Any leftover, raw greens will be great in the salad.

*Serves four.

Bean has been very happy now that the weather is warmer. It means he gets to go outside! He scares himself when he shuffles through any dried up old leaves he finds though. Bean hasn’t yet figured out what causes that strange rustling sound.

Bean looking around for bugs to eat

Muppet loves going outdoors too. She loves exploring and rooting around the yard, and always comes back inside in a fine mess.

Muppet enjoying a little sunshine

Achilles is one spoiled gerbil. He knows when Steve comes by he’ll have some kind of tasty treat to give him. Here he’s eating a carrot, but he particularly loves bits of broccoli.

Steve feeding his gerbil Achilles by hand

Salem is the rabbit that Steve got at the county fair last year. The rabbit will be one of the three 4-H projects that Steve plans to do this year. Bean will be heading to the fair again this year too. Hopefully Bean won’t be too jealous that he has to share Steve’s attention with Salem.

Spending some quality time with Salem

I can’t help but think in terms of our school year having a beginning and an end, and I suppose that is no surprise as years of formal education have drilled the idea of the traditional school calendar into my head. At the end of every August, I still look forward to school supply sales and new school subjects to tackle. And at the end of every Spring I tend to analyze what we’ve accomplished for the year, set up goals for the next year, and look forward to moving at a more relaxed pace over the summer.

Since Tobin would be in Kindergarten this year, my goals for him this year were pretty basic. I wanted him to be reading whole books, doing basic math like adding and subtracting, and writing. We did throw in a bit of science and a wee bit of geography too, but I felt that there would be plenty of time for all of that stuff later on. The math and reading came pretty easily and fairly early on in the school year, but writing was a big struggle all year.

The last few months though, I have seen lots of visible improvement in Tobin’s writing skills. He can write his first name beautifully, he is able to write every letter of the alphabet with minimal help, and his numbers are actually starting to look like numbers. What has pleased me the most in his progress though is that he is finally able to draw for pleasure! When he was finally able to purposely draw something recognizable and get excited about it, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I figured that if he enjoys drawing things, he’ll do it more often and on his own. And if he practices drawing more often, his motor skills will improve and the rest of his writing skills will hopefully fall right into place.

Tobin begins drawing a picture of his family.

Tobin draws his mom, dad, himself, and his two brothers

Tobin was so proud of his picture of his family that he wanted his dad to tape it up in his bedroom. Unfortunately, before they had a chance to put the picture up, Steve did something to annoy Tobin, so he crossed Steve out of the picture…sigh. Maybe Steve will get to stay in the next drawing…

My mother used to make cauliflower patties for us all the time. It was always a treat that I looked forward to. I have vivid memories of trying to patiently wait for the next batch to be out of the fry pan and ready to gobble down. It was probably nearly impossible for my mom to cook them as fast as my brothers and I could eat them.

My mom always fried hers in oil, and I really miss eating them that way. However ever since I had my gall bladder out, fried foods and I are no longer friends, so I stick to using cooking spray instead. If you decide to fry them in oil, please remember to eat one for me.

Cauliflower Patties Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups cauliflower broken into small pieces
1 cup of flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion (optional)
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 eggs
½ cooking liquid saved from cooking cauliflower (could also use milk)
1 cup shredded/grated cheese (sharp cheddar, Colby, mozzarella, parmesan, etc. or some combination of cheeses)
Olive oil for frying (or cooking spray if you’re trying to keep it lower fat)

Directions:

1) Break fresh cauliflower into small pieces and put into a small saucepan. Add enough water to cover cauliflower pieces and boil until tender. DO NOT DRAIN WATER.
2) Using a slotted spoon, remove cooked cauliflower pieces to a medium sized mixing bowl. Set cooking water aside for later. Allow cauliflower to cool a bit.
3) When cauliflower is cooled a bit, add flour, onions if using, salt, pepper, herbs, garlic, and eggs to bowl and combine.
4) Add ½ cup of saved cooking liquid to create a batter the consistency of pancake batter. If desired, use milk instead of cooking liquid.
5) Mix shredded/grated cheese into the batter.
6) Heat olive oil in a fry pan over medium heat or spray pan with cooking oil.
7) When oil is hot, carefully drop ¼ cup pools of batter into pan. (I can usually make 2-3 patties at a time in my fry pan.) Cook patties for 4-5 minutes, about 2 minutes or so per side. If frying patties in oil, move cooked patties to a paper towel lined plate to drain excess oil. If using cooking spray, the paper towels are unnecessary. (The fried ones taste best, but they are probably healthier without all the oil.)

Serving suggestions:

1) I usually serve mine with plenty of salt and pepper.
2) Try serving with marinara sauce for dipping.

Notes:

1) If you don’t like cauliflower, try using shredded zucchini in the batter instead. If using zucchini, I normally increase the amount of onion I use with it. Broccoflower is a good substitute as well if you are lucky enough to find some in your local grocery store. I can never seem to find it when I am specifically looking for it.
2) Leftover cooked patties warm up pretty well the next day.

* Batter makes about 10 cauliflower patties.

Although I told him that I supported his decision and said we needed to sit down and discuss what foods he needed to eat to get enough iron, protein, etc., I also thought to myself that he’d probably change his mind after a few days. (I’m sure my parents thought the same thing when I made the same decision at age 14.) It’s not that I think of Steve as a fickle person at all, but more that I couldn’t imagine he’d willingly and happily give up his favorite foods such as sushi, grilled salmon, and steak slathered in A-1 sauce.

So far though, Steve seems pretty serious about it, and even if he does change his mind down the road, I still think this is a good opportunity to get him thinking more about eating a balanced diet and learning to cook some new recipes, definitely important skills to have when he’s living out on his own someday and doesn’t have mom around to nag him to eat something healthy. Up until this point in his life, Ken and I have obviously made most of the decisions about what our son eats on a day to day basis. But now that Steve is cutting out meat, there will be a lot more occasions where he will have to figure out for himself what he needs to eat and will likely have to cook things for himself. (Tobin has no intention of giving up meat, and in fact, denies that his brother is a vegetarian.) Steve does know how to cook a number of things on his own, but he definitely could learn more.

In order to help him learn to cook more dishes, I am going to make a concerted effort to actually write down the recipes of our favorite meals instead of just winging it as I normally do. It has always been a running joke that I am incapable of actually following a recipe line by line without making a million changes. I’m hoping that by writing down the recipe successes, Steve will confidently be able to make for himself the foods that he enjoys. There will be plenty of time later for him to make his own recipe adaptations once he gets the basics down.

Last week I attempted to write out my minestrone recipe as I was actually preparing it. I carefully measured everything before I put into the pot. Steve claimed that he didn’t believe I really did write out the recipe because if I had, it would have signaled the apocalypse, and we’re obviously still here.

Here is my minestrone recipe. I doubt I’ve ever made it exactly the same way twice, but it turned out quite well last week, so hopefully Steve can successfully follow the recipe next time.

Vegetarian Minestrone

Ingredients:

2 cups veggie broth
2 cups V-8 or tomato juice
4 cups water
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz.)
3 teaspoons dried oregano
3 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried parsley
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon rosemary, crushed
3 teaspoons minced garlic
½ cup frozen pearl onions
1 cup frozen chopped spinach
2 cups frozen mixed veggies (carrots, corn, green beans, peas, and lima beans)
1 cup frozen okra cuts
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed (15.5 oz)
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed (15.5 oz)
½ cup diced zucchini
½ cup diced yellow squash
½ cup chopped celery
1 cup diced potato
1 cup shredded green cabbage
1 cup ditalini or other small pasta such as orzo, small shells, or elbow macaroni

Directions:

1) In a large stockpot, combine all of the ingredients listed except the pasta.
2) Stir the ingredients well and bring soup to a boil. Once a boil is reached, turn the heat down, and cover the pot with a lid. Cook the soup until the diced potato is cooked all the way through, about 20-25 minutes.
3) While the soup is cooking, bring a small pot of water to boil for the pasta. Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Once the pasta is done, drain, and add to your finished soup, stirring well.

Notes and suggestions:

1) If you don’t like a particular vegetable or don’t have it on hand, just leave it out. The various amounts of vegetables can be easily adjusted according to your tastes or whatever you happen to have in your refrigerator.
2) The beans listed can be changed as well. Canned red kidney beans, navy beans, or Great Northern beans work well in this soup too. I generally use whatever I happen to have on hand.
3) If you are watching your carbs or can’t have gluten, just leave out the pasta. All those veggies and beans will still make a hearty meal.
4) If you don’t have any pasta on hand, try replacing the pasta with cooked rice or barley.
5) This soup is great served with grated parmesan cheese on top and a side of crusty bread.
6) The soup freezes well, so freeze up some individual sized portions and keep for later lunches.
7) This recipe makes a very large pot of soup. For a smaller pot of soup, skip the 4 cups of water, use a 15 ounce can of tomatoes, add only 1 can of beans, reduce the quantity and variety of veggies included, and season to taste with your favorite herbs.

** I have no idea how many servings this is. It was enough for dinner for four people plus enough to fill a few single portion containers to freeze for future lunches.

Although he enjoyed reading the sentence describing what we’d be doing for the day, Tobin wasn’t too interested in actually making snowflakes. We were having some friends over for a playdate, so he was too excited about that to focus on anything else. He told me he’d “help me make snowflakes later.” Stephen however dove right into cutting out snowflakes and happily made oodles of them.

Steve didn't just stick with white paper. He moved on to yellow and blue as well!

At first we used plain old 8.5 x 11 inch printer paper, but I quickly realized that after folding up the paper to prepare it for cutting, it would be too difficult for little hands to easily snip through with scissors, too many layers of paper to try to cut through. Steve and I could manage just fine, but I knew that Tobin and the other kids who would be visiting would probably have a tough time of it.

I remembered reading somewhere that paper coffee filters are good to use for making cut-out snowflakes, so I dug some out from the kitchen cupboard so we could give it a try. The coffee filters worked really well! Because they are already round, there was much less paper waste than when using the regular paper, and when folded, the coffee filter layers were much easier for little hands to cut through than normal paper.

Snowflake cut from a coffee filter

We had a great time cutting out snowflakes with our friends. We probably have enough snowflake cut outs to decorate every window in our house and then some. Our neighbors will probably wonder about us…oh, they probably already do.

Ian seemed to really enjoy making snowflakes with us.

Erin and Tess putting their scissors to work.

Erin's owl-on-a-branch snowflake...

Erin's snowflake with a star-topped Christmas tree and snowman..very cool.

Warren and Tobin opted to skip making snowflakes and played instead, but I'm sure they were thinking of snowflakes the whole time. (Yeah, right...hehe.)

Although Tobin was too busy yesterday to make snowflakes, he wanted to try it this morning. He isn’t great with scissors yet, but he did manage to make a few with my help. He wanted me to make sure to write his name on his so we wouldn’t confuse them with Steve’s.

Tobin's first finished snowflake (with help from mom).

Tobin unfolding a snowflake to see if it's done, as he says.

Apparently, the 8 million snowflakes that Steve cut out yesterday were not enough to bore him of the project, so he took up the scissors and paper again today to make some more. Today, he went more slowly and tried to deliberately plan out his cuts and experimented more with shapes.

Steve is still fascinated with the snowflakes on day 2.

I think we might try painting a few of our coffee filter snowflakes with food coloring sometime this week. We have some glitter glue pens that would be great for livening them up too. I had planned on taping them all to the windows of our house, but I’d like to string some up for a mobile as well.

For those of you who don’t want to dig out the paper and scissors, but still want to make snowflakes, you can try your hand at making some on the computer. There are several websites that you can find to do this, but I particularly liked the one called SnowDays.

I looked at various websites and blogs for ideas and finally settled on a Baby Sock Advent Calendar. There are several different blogs I ran across that posted pictures of finished Baby Sock Advent Calendars, but I believe the idea originally was made popular by Martha Stewart.

You can click here to view the steps for making Martha’s Baby Sock Advent Calendar.

Here is the Baby Sock Advent Calendar that I put together for our family this past Friday night.

Baby Sock Advent Calendar

I purchased most of the baby socks for our Advent calendar from Target. A few of the socks were unmatched strays that I had lying around the house.

I strung the baby socks using wood clothespins and a bulky weight red yarn, things I happened to have lying around the house. I had originally planned to use Christmas-themed ribbon to string the socks on, but the ribbon I wanted to use didn’t seem strong enough, so I switched to the yarn. The socks got kind of heavy, so I needed to buy big push pins from K-Mart to push into my mantle to help hold up the yarn and socks. Fortunately, there were already a bunch of holes in the mantle from a previous owner, so I didn’t have to feel bad about putting holes in the wood.

I also labeled the top of each clothespin with a number for each day until Christmas. I used a silver Sharpie. You can’t see the numbers too well from far away, but it is just fine close up. I didn’t want to use black because I thought it would be too dark in contrast to the lighter colored socks, and I happened to have the silver marker lying around. Besides, silver is more festive.

My plan is to put something into one of the socks each night before I go to bed, something for the kids to look forward to each morning until Christmas. I plan to use an assortment of things from notes suggesting a fun activity to do for the day to some kind of small, sweet treat. A lot will probably depend on what our schedule for the day is. We probably won’t have time for a complicated holiday art project on days that we have a lot of running to do.

Calendar close-up