As I've mentioned before, this summer has been the summer of smoothies. With the heat, I haven't felt much like cooking, and it's hard to get E to eat nearly enough fruit and veggies. So a lot of our fruit intake has been smoothies.
But recipes for smoothies sort of amuse me. I never use a recipe. I keep a big bag of frozen berries, mangoes (when they are just edging on too ripe) and other fruit in the freezer, oj, homemade yogurt or store bought kefir in the fridge and just grab and go.
I need to get some kefir cultures and make it from scratch at some point soon. But Helios Organic Vanilla Kefir is a favorite of mine. Straight from the bottle it's thick, like a not quite set right yogurt, and satisfies my sweet tooth nicely. Blended with frozen milk cubes it's sort of milkshake-y. I've heard you can culture kefir from coconut milk, and I'm curious about that for virgin pina coladas.
So.. this is probably the only time this will happen. I'm going to write down a recipe for a kefir version of a childhood favorite. I think I've mentioned before my mother was anti-sweets for my brother and I. Really not fair with a dad who thinks chocolate is a food group, but we got all those old health food store snacks. Yogurt covered raisins, rock hard candies made with sesame seeds and honey, carob (which I STILL hate).
But when my face still had all the stitches in it, I couldn't eat, so mom made me smoothies until I got the stitches out of my mouth. My favorite was her creamsicle smoothies that she made with honey, orange juice concentrate, ice cubes, vanilla and plain yogurt. Now occasionally I make them for my family.

Orange Vanilla Smoothie-
1 tray of ice cubes
3/4 cup frozen oj concentrate- undiluted
1 cup water
2 cups vanilla yogurt or vanilla kefir, for the yogurt, just add vanilla and sweetener to plain yogurt to taste. In my case, it's enough vanilla to tint my yogurt tan. I LOVE vanilla. (and the homemade vanilla in homemade yogurt.. YUM!)

Blend until smooth. Makes 3 servings.
Soft set yogurt rocks for smoothies, so if it didn't set up quite as thick as you like for yogurt, use it for smoothies.
If you mix prepared oj and vanilla yogurt half and half and pour it into an ice pop mold, you have homemade orange vanilla pops that are low-fat (if you used low-fat milk for your yogurt) and full of vitamin c and happy beneficial bacteria goodness.

But I do let my kids have chocolate and have never tried to convince them that carob was the same thing but better.

Saturday, the first day of Mike's vacation, we went to the Bear Paw Festival. I bought a bunch of ride tickets for the kids, gave them the tickets, then Mike and I went and found a nice patch of grass to sit in under a tree while they used up the tickets. They had a blast. I got seriously too warm. The first time we walked by the fire truck spraying water for the kids to play in, I didn't follow E in, I just held her purse for her. On the way back though.. I needed it too much. So I limped in with my cane and all the kids and just stood under the downpour of water while Mike held my purse and E's so we could do that. Thank goodness he had his hands too full to take a picture!

Well.. another 80 degree day in Anchorage. Which is like 110 for anyone living down south. We were all pretty miserable. More so because I gave one of our fans to my dad so he could be less miserable with the heat yesterday. But we made it. Complaining the entire time in my case.
(what happened to the last fan I gave him? Easy. He lent it to Lamar last year and hasn't gotten it back. So as soon as summer is over and they hit rock bottom again, I'm buying a few for next year.)

Tonight for dinner, because I wasn't starting the oven for anything, we had a nice light meal of hummus wraps with tomatoes, cukes and feta. Yum yum. I made enough hummus I have extra for lunch tomorrow. I can dip carrot sticks into it.
After dinner, we had smoothies. So I'm all full of vitamin C.

As promised, here's the picture of my Uncle Lamar.
( click here if you're curious )
He's 66. I keep thinking, looking at him and dad.. 66 looks a lot different then it did when I was a kid. I don't think I knew any senior citizens who rode motorcycles. Now I know a bunch of them. His laugh sounds like he looks. It's a happy belly laugh that's completely infectious and not mocking or hurtful. Well.. that's pretty much him. He's so good. He doesn't really know how good he is which is a shame, but I love him so much. He's the biggest reason I work so hard on tasty sugar free treats like the chocolate cream pie with a cookie crust and the banana bread.
Today we did nothing. I had vague plans of walking up to the gym or just walking, but in the end, the heat and humidity beat me. Too Alaskan for our gorgeous summers I guess.

Yesterday, when I asked E what she wanted for dinner, she wasn't sure. So I gave her a list of options and she decided on homemade mac and cheese.
Now, here's the thing, like most kids, it used to be that anything other then the stuff that comes in boxes with either a packet of cheese powder or a foil packet of cheese paste was disgusting to her. I wanted to give her mac and cheese that actually.. you know, had cheese in it. So I found clone recipe for the boxed stuff with the cheese paste, and made that. Every time I make mac and cheese, I change one more thing until I can make mac and cheese like mom used to make, well.. sort of. In as much as I follow any recipe.
Last night was the first time I tried baking it so it go all nice and crusty on top. IIRC, mom used to use Ritz cracker crumbs and french fried onions on top. I used a mix of sharp cheddar and seasoned cereal crumbs. I use seasoned cereal crumbs instead of panko for most panko uses. They bake up nice and crispy, usually are fortified with vitamins that don't completely cook out, and they keep as long as need them once I crush up the cereal and season it.
I also let her try a piece of the turkey I was cutting up to mix into Mike's and my mac and cheese and asked if she wanted some. She said yes, so I mixed in some turkey. It was a hit. I'm getting closer step by step.
She still thinks cooked veggies are nasty, so I made two separate casserole dishes with mac and cheese in them. The bigger one for Mike and I had frozen peas in it, and she just ate raw carrots with hers.
( on vegetables and kids )
Well.. today I'm going to crochet myself a headband using some of Paton's silk/bamboo blend.
And try really hard to get rid of my current earworm. Mike's had What's New Pussycat? stuck in his head. I've had UFO Phil's Listening Coast to Coast and his Aliens Really Stink stuck in my head.

Well, it's been about 8 hours. The package said it would be set in 4, but I had my doubts and it wasn't. That's fine, generally working from plain yogurt for the culturing it can take 8-12 hours to set.
It's set up nicely, and it smells wonderful. I didn't follow the package instructions exactly because well.. generally I won't. So here's how I did it. (my notes follow, part of this is going up as a review)
( cut for the people who really don't care )

W got me a few books I wanted, all craft related, so I'll be telling you about them.
We picked up my cake, and dropped it and the veggies off at my dad's with the bread for my Uncle. Then we headed up to the Saturday Market and I found a perfect gift for a friend of mine.. you know.. those times you see something and it's so completely perfect.. there is no way to resist.. we also got soap from Gladheart Acres, the Tupperware seller there DID have the ice tups I wanted. (Tupperware is made in the U.S. and better construction. So I wanted Tupperware brand specifically for my frozen pops). We bought a couple pints of cherries and munched sweet sweet cherries, and listened to a lady playing a hammered dulcimer, and just had a lovely time.
After that, we headed to my dad's house. Mike burned zucchini and mushrooms beautifully. Lamar told me the chocolate banana bread was amazing. He had one small piece before running some errands with Dad, then complained because he left the rest behind and wanted more. He effusively complimented Mike's mushrooms. Well.. they deserved it. The main course was sausage and hot dogs we picked up at the Saturday Market. Oh it was so good. I'm so stuffed. Double cardio at the gym tomorrow, but it was worth it. Every bit of caloric orgy.

Sugar Free Chocolate Banana Bread
4 large ripe bananas, a little overripe is fine for this. Mine were just edging into "banana bread" only stage.
1 egg
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup Splenda
2 Tbsp vanilla extract (your mileage may vary, but I like a lot of vanilla)
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. baking soda

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cup flour I used whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mash up bananas well with a wooden spoon. You don't have to be too picky, you can see banana chunks in mine. Mix in butter, Splenda, egg, vanilla and mix it to a really disgusting gloppy looking mess.Stir in baking soda and salt, then mix in the dry ingredients. Cocoa first to get it well mixed in, then the flour.
Pour into greased loaf pan.It will just fill a greased loaf pan to 2/3rd full or thereabouts.
Bake for 1 hour. Let rest for about 10 minutes, and turn out.

I used more Splenda than I use sugar in my regular recipe because it's a lot harder to make a sugar free icing. I got some whipped cream cheese for him to spread on it, but he thinks cream cheese will distract from the goodness of the bread. He *really* liked the bread.

Yeah.. it was a really happy birthday.

I made pancakes for breakfast using a slight modification of the classic cottage cheese pancake recipe and.. YUM. If you've not had cottage cheese pancakes, they are rich and moist and amazing with fruit. Or if you're lazy like me, still pretty good with maple syrup!
( cottage cheese pancake recipe )
I also made up some chocolate banana bread for my uncle using Splenda, so I'll let you know what he thinks of it and post the recipe modifications I made to it when I get home tonight. I also asked if he'd be willing to try vanilla infused Splenda in his coffee. Since he uses it regularly, he's a better judge then I am about how it turns out. I mixed 1 vanilla bean, with about half the caviar in it with about a half cup of Splenda. I'll let you know next week what he thinks of it.

This is going to be an odd post, mostly because of the gulf between the two albums I'm recommending. Street Sweeper is Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, and Boots Riley of The Coup. Boots Riley wrote the lyrics and did the vocals, and Tom Morello wrote the music. Boots Riley describes it as "The songs are funk/rock anthems for the revolution." It's good stuff, and I'm pre-ordering the album for myself.

The other album recommendation is S.J. Tucker's Quartered: Songs of Palimpsest. You can listen to the album on that link, and pay what you want for it, minimum 6.00. It's lovely and worth it. An album that suits the book very well.
The book, Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente is the most beautiful thing I've read this year. It's a lush descriptive story that's just easy to get lost in. If you haven't read it, I envy you. I envied you as soon as I finished reading because you get to read it for the first time, and I can't anymore. It's that kind of book.

I'm looking forward to Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey though. I've got it pre-ordered for my Kindle so I'll have it shortly after I wake up. Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books are so good and I'm a comic geek, so I'm looking forward to seeing what she does with a superhero and werewolves.

Okay.. well.. I'm done telling you all about things I'm loving now.
( making dinner tonight )

Seriously. The last chef at the place he works had no interest in switching from white to go boxes to unbleached. So he brought it up with the new chef, who is enthused about the idea.
I love that he does this so much. Without being preachy or anything else, he just encourages greener choices for a big hotel. He's absolutely my hero.

Today: That chocolate banana cake finally, and making yogurt. Other than that.. working on a pair of earrings and reading a trashy book on my kindle. Yay kindle! I can hide my more embarrassing reading choices while I'm in public.

Yesterday I was supposed to meet an old friend for coffee, but that didn't pan out. So we took E out to get more fabric for her dolls. Which I need to see and get pictures of. I've only seen one of them so far, but she spends her evenings happily in her room sewing sewing sewing.
I've been making a bunch of knotted paracord bracelets lately. Since I don't have plastic slide clasps,I'm making clasps out of copper for them. They are so easy and fast. I think I'll use the same technique to design a beaded friendship bracelet. It's just super easy square knots with handmade clasps so it will adapt well to embroidery floss.
The QotD thing recently? What song is stuck in your head? Stuart by the Dead Milkmen or Vanilla by Marian Call. It keeps going back and forth.

I didn't take a picture yet, but I baked banana bread. Generally I don't do quick breads, but it sounded good, it's just a basic banana bread, you know, 3 bananas, baking soda, butter, vanilla, egg, sugar, flour... I used spelt flour. But you know.. I have real cream cheese in my fridge. I had bananas. Banana bread HAD to happen right?
E and I are discussing what should go into a chocolate banana bread. But this week she wants cinnamon in almost anything sweet.

It's rainy. I'm hurting. So I'm skipping bead chat tonight. Otherwise I'll just be more scattered than usual.

Here.

Mike got me one of these adorable little omelet pans. All the reviews I've read about them and even the packaging agree the handles get very hot, but I can crochet a little happy egg shaped pot holder specifically for it. He also got me the matching whisk and matching mini egg spatula. The cuteness just thrills me.

However, he didn't get me eggs. So perfect tiny round omelets in my perfect tiny round pan will have to wait a day or two.

The plan was for a loaf of bread that tasted something like French toast. But I used my homemade vanilla because it smelled good, but it hasn't quite completely matured, and I only had 2 raw eggs. So it turned out to be maple-y sweet and cinnamon-y and very good, but really not what I had in mind.
( recipe and pictures )

Show Me How- 500 Things You Should Know is the book E and I picked a couple weeks ago. Both of us love how to do thing type books like this. The sort that are filled with all sorts of things you knew, didn't know, will never use, and that inspire you. And this one is great. One of the best of it's sort I've ever seen. What makes it different is that it's almost all illustration dependent. The text is just to clarify the nicely done and colorful vector diagrams.
It's NOT a good book for kids unless you trust your children not do dangerous or illegal things. Like one of the projects is how to tag pavement in a sneaky way, and there is a whole section on mixing and drinking alcohol, including very irresponsible things like keg stands. I do trust my 13 yo as long as I know we are reading and discussing the same things.
It's also got a bunch of diagrams and instructions for things children would be interested in doing. In the last couple of days, I've learned how remove hair with thread (like a manual epilady. Ouch. But effective!) and how to "quick peel" a boiled egg by blowing it out of it's shell (today being colored egg day, Mike and I tried it, I had better luck than he did. It was funny watching him do it though.) It's got a huge variety of projects and tips. Surviving, crafts, cooking, drinking, fashion, sewing, astrology, flirting, reading tea leaves. It's a lot of fun.
E liked it well enough she gave it a hug before letting me read it.

We had terribly unhealthy biscuits and gravy for breakfast, so we are having something healthy for dinner, and I picked up some jerky for W made with seitan, and I think I'm going to try making my own seitan and jerking it with my homemade teriyaki sauce.I also found some kosher gelatin, so I'm going to try that in a couple things.

Please vote for my threadless slogan? I'm so sick of vampires..... I want it so much as a teeshirt!!!

You know about them right? The easiest non-baked dessert in the world. The worst problem with them is that the chocolate wafers really cost more than they should, but if you're willing to bake your own (which defeats the no-bake aspect) they don't cost much at all to make.
You layer wafer cookies and whipped cream and pop it in the fridge over night and the cookies soften into a layered cake like mass.

So.. I love baking, but I'm always looking for ideas for E's b-day, because in the middle of July, I usually don't want to bake. In her life, she's had 2 b-day cakes. The rest were sundaes, root beer floats or other no-bake options. So we decided to test the no-bake cake last night and see if we liked it for her b-day.

Instead of 2 boxes with 1 extra to replace broken cookies, we did our layers in some of the Disney sandwich boxes we use with our bento lunches. Now, one of those full is entirely too much cake for one person (E disagrees with me of course, but she'd rather share than get none!) so smaller side dish containers, or even cupcake boxes would be better. We just shared, instead of whipping cream, I got a charger for my cream whipper thing so there was virtually no prep time, and it's all stuff that kids can do easily. I'm going to pick up some Murray cookies, and sugar free cool whip and try it that way for my Uncle.
One box of cookies made in smaller containers will make a decent amount of cake without being too much for a family of 4 to eat, and it was a winner with E who thinks it will be great for her b-day.

Not related right now though.
When E was little and in the condiment stage (parents know it right? Where condiments get over used just because they are there.) we didn't let her salt her food, we did however, let her use unlimited amounts of pepper. So the result of that is that she does still use a lot of pepper. She uses black or red pepper in amounts that make my eyes water, and loves them.
What made me think of that was a hint I ran across somewhere recently, probably HillbillyHousewife suggesting filling a shaker with 1 part pepper to 3 parts salt so you could salt and pepper all at once. Well, in our household it would be more like 1 part salt to 5 parts pepper. I keep a shaker of a blend of my favorite seasonings by my stove. It's got a whole lot of a no-salt organic seasoning we all really like, a small amount of regular seasoning salt, some pesto type seasonings, and pepper. A bit of red, a lot of black. I know, that sounds like too much flavor for anything, but it works out well for us, and I'm not worried about applying it generously because I know it's only about 10% salt. This whole week, my seasoning bottle has NOT been staying put. So I finally asked Mike "Am I underseasoning your food?" "No. I'm using it on nuts." Ah.. those nuts. Which are half gone now, 2 teens and a man who likes nuts are more to credit than my nut breads. So last night I toasted a pan full of nuts for him. I used a bit of olive oil, some of my seasoning salt, a little extra red pepper (everyone likes it more than me, the amount in my mix is about what I can handle, then I add for the pepper fiends) and a dash of Worcestershire. In the oven at 300°F for about 30 minutes. Yummy seasoned nuts. Hopefully my seasoning will stay put for a few days.

Apparently, I'm going to or having (somewhere else.. my home is my Fortress of Quatratude) a tea party because I was idly imagining the perfect tea party with friends, and posted it as my status on Myspace, and someone local said it sounded like a great idea. It does, I'm pouting because it can't be my perfect imaginary tea party with a lot of you. I said there must be hats, because it's a tea party darnit. So I need a hat, and gloves (and proof that R should be on my perfect tea party list? When I brought it up with her, she said there needs to be hats). Gloves are easy, I have some pretty vintage gloves and know where to find more. One advantage to having hands the size of the average 12 yo is that I can wear vintage gloves just fine. The hat is trickier. I have lots of ideas, but I keep going back to the thought of making a gothic lolita styled mini witch hat that can tie under my chin in a pretty bow.
I want this so much for tea,to make shortbread in.
Adding a new tag to remind myself when it's time to make wish lists for my family. For some reason, they *always* want one.

Mike suggested just putting a bunch of spare coffee cups on a ring together and hanging them where I hang my measuring cups since I tend too often just to grab whatever is handy and eye measurements. He was pretty suspicious when he saw me actually measure out amounts for this loaf, I think he thought I was working from a recipe until I went out to grab my notebook to take notes.
( Nut and Honey Bread Recipe )

I got my vanilla beans from Vanilla Products USA on Ebay today. First the cold stats. I got a half a lb of their Madagascar Bourbon extract grade beans. This wound up being about 80 beans from 5 (at the shortest, and only a couple of those) to 7 inch beans. Delivery was fast, I did a buy it now on March 17th and got them today. Communication was good. When I opened the vacuum sealed pouch, I was hit by an intense vanilla/bourbon smell. Yum yum. The beans were thin, but full of a nice dense caviar, and they were moist, out of the ones I rendered for my extract, I only hit one woody bean in the bunch. Bonus- they sent me 10 free Tahitian extract grade beans to try. It was 10.95 + 3.12 first class mail. So about 18¢ per bean, which is a really great price.
( lots of vanilla pics )
So to make my extract, I used the method at Vanilla Review, he's got great instructions and takes vanilla super seriously. So I'm just going to give a quick overview and my math on it.
I *can* use a lot of vanilla, I use lots more than most people I think, since the complexities of underrated vanilla never fail to thrill me. And because vanilla meringues toasted to just golden are as close to a guilt free cookie as you can get. So if you're not as much into vanilla and think less will do fine, just reduce measurements.
So a quick reference for people who don't drink and need measurements (like I did.. so I'm just saving you the google time)
1/2 pint= 8 oz
1 pint= 16 oz
Fifth (the standard bottle size) = 1/5 gallon =25.6 ounces
VR recommends an ounce of beans per cup of liquid, and having 80 beans to 8 ounces roughly (I didn't weigh it) meant approximately 10 beans=1 ounce.
I used Skyy vodka because it was the only mid-tier vodka in a colored bottle. He recommends dark bottles, and in this bottle, I feel safe letting it set until it's ready. I won't put it in sunlight, but in one of my cupboards, it's fine. I got a fifth. Because I needed room for the beans, I poured 3/4 of a cup into a jar to use for something else (footspray actually.. I did mention I don't drink right?)
I wanted a double strength or better vanilla extract. So..
(25.6-6)/8= 2.45, or roughly 2 and half cups of vodka. So for a single strength extract, that would be 25 beans, for my double strength thick extract, it would 50 beans. I sliced off the tops and bottoms of the beans with my sharp knife, and put them in the bottle, then I sliced them lengthwise and used the back of the knife to scrape the caviar out and put the caviar in the bottle, and cut up the pods into inch long pieces and put them in the bottle. And did that for 50 beans, which was time consuming, but if you're making a smaller amount,or just want a single strenth you wouldn't need to do that many. I really like vanilla. When I was done, I recapped the bottle (oh.. a nice easy screw cap!) and gave it a good shake.
In 6 months, I'll strain out the beans, and decant it into smaller amber or green bottles and probably give away a few bottles to friends so my next batch can be made with Alaskan vodka. I'm planning to include a recipe for meringue cookies with it when I give away a couple bottles as gifts. It's supposed to be "done enough" after a month, but I want to let it go the full 6 months for the richness of flavor. A couple weeks before we strain the bean pieces out, we plan to make sugar crystals and then put the pieces in with them for a very fancy sugar for tea and coffee.

Of course, my husband was very patient about the whole house smelling like vanilla. Because he rocks like that.

Very cool sale.. signed copies ofAlternation for 8.00 each including shipping. Better? Craft Magazine has a coupon code for 1.50 off.

Making yogurt from scratch-
You can find really detailed instructions on Little House in the Suburbs. So the only tips I have to add are if you have a gas oven with a non-auto pilot light, that will probably be warm enough to incubate. I turned my oven on a couple times to the lowest temp for about a half hour,then turned it off, and my yogurt was thick and perfect in about 10 hours. Also, if you pick up a 32 oz starter of plain yogurt like I did, just freeze the rest, you'll be able to use it for starters for your next batches. I used 1/2 cup containers, so it's already portioned and ready to go, but you can also use an ice cube tray and freeze it, then put the cubes in a bag and just use a couple cubes for your next batch, when you use it, let it defrost at room temp, don't heat it. You want all those cultures to come back and zapping it or otherwise heating it could kill the cultures. Sweeten with whatever you like,flavor how you like, or add savory if that's what you prefer. My son actually prefers ranch dip made with non fat yogurt to the usual high fat alternatives.

Creme Fraiche is even easier. 1 cup of cream and 2 Tablespoons of butter milk in a lidded jar, shake it up to mix them, then just leave it some place warm for about 10-24 hours until it's nice and thick, chill. Or... *grins* in our case, we mixed a bit of maple syrup and the caviar of one vanilla bean in it. Sure.. it's fattening.. but it tastes amazing on that nut bread.

Well.. time to order pizza for dinner. I was planning to bake a pie in my entirely too nifty Pi pie plate, but time got away from me.

I remember Mom making yogurt when I was a kid, and layering jam and homemade yogurt into ice pop molds for a frozen summer treat that wasn't ice cream. I have a friend in Brazil who is absolutely stunned by how much people here the US buy ready made, including yogurt.
Well.. it's super easy to make it from scratch, but I just tend to forget since it's usually an impulse purchase for me, but since I've been using it a lot more lately, I decided to make some.
Advantages to homemade including being a lot more green. A 32 oz container of plain yogurt will make 8 batches to 16 batches depending on if you use starter from your last yogurt batch or new starter every time. Another advantage is ingredients. Have you read the ingredients on an average package of yogurt? Some have corn syrup because you know.. *everything* has corn syrup these days. Some have gelatin.

Well.. one of the big reasons I made it is because of one of Mike's favorite snack foods. Chocolate yogurt covered raisins. The ones you buy in the store are full of all sorts of ick, including a lot of oil and wax. If you have a dehydrator or gas oven, you can make them with homemade yogurt. They aren't shelf stable, they do need to be chilled.. but you can control exactly what goes into them.
So that's the plan. Yogurt covered raisins. Except.. I'm out of raisins. I do have dried cherries on hand though, so I'm going to try with those.
Wish me luck!

So I baked a loaf of bread, but since I was baking just to bake, I'm afraid I didn't measure ingredients. Just grabbed and went with the mood. It's a shame, it turned out *great*. It's a whole wheat loaf with olive oil, molasses, and mixed nuts chopped very fine which doesn't, looking at it, sound like it would work, but it does, and it's so good. I'm going to the grocery store tonight when Mike gets off work, so I'll pick up the ingredients to make creme fraiche to spread on it. The loaf is a free formed loaf, and the color turned out a really pretty shade of brown. Yum yum!
We haven't been to the store since I got sick, and last night came down to "Honey? When did we buy sandwich meat?" (fortunately, recently enough it was fine)