Archives for February 2015

Happy weekend – February is OVER!

February 27, 2015 / By Courtney / 4 Comments

Agree or disagree, my friends? I could not agree more. I’ve found I make the best and deepest connections with people around the kitchen table. It’s how I roll.

Let’s see, what else on this chilly Friday. Well, like a crazy person I’ve been spraying this hand sanitizer all over hands, carts, airplanes, etc. lately. Love it.

These Happy Socks arrived this past week and true to their name, made me oh so happy.

Our wood floors are officially ordered and being produced for our renovation! Eek. Sorry little trees, but I promise to love you forever.

Trying out some new essential oils lately and the smells are divine. Will keep you posted on the results. Love that they offer one to help ease growing pains, which both my boys suffer from. Hey, it hurts to be off the charts tall!

I’ve loved having a pot of this French Lentil soup in the fridge all week. The taste is reason alone to make it but hey, did you know this? Although lentils include all these beneficial nutrients like fiber, protein, minerals and vitamins, they are still low in calories and contain virtually no fat. One cup of cooked lentils only contains about 230 calories, but still leaves you feeling full and satisfied. Score.

Beginning to daydream about spring break…

9 truths that moms of ‘boys only’ need to know. Loved, loved, loved this.

Oh my goodness how divine and over the top does this recipe look? I know.

ALFS was featured over at the DIY Dreamer this week – thank you so much, Christine!

Over winter? Yea, me too. Any time I kind of want to cry about it, I just watch this video for a chuckle. It’s just.so. true. Chicagoans, it’s a must see!

And lastly, the best part about this weekend? February is OVER!

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The best of both worlds.

February 25, 2015 / By Courtney / 10 Comments

I just about died of happiness when I was browsing the Kitchn and came upon a recipe that combined my two favorite go-to soup recipes: chicken soup and lentil soup. That, my friends, is what we call the best of both worlds.

I knew this one would be a winner even before I began to chop away at the minimal but impactful ingredients. How could it not? The earthiness of the oh so healthy lentils balances out the smoky flavor from the bacon fat and the richness of the dark thighs. A sprinkle of parmesan to round it all out while dunking a warm hunk of this homemade bread?

It just doesn’t get any better.

French Lentil Chicken Soup

2015-02-23 17:13:09

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Ingredients

4 tablespoons bacon fat or butter or evoo or combo (I used 2 TBS evoo and a slice of bacon which I then removed)
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
12 cups chicken stock or water
2 cups French lentils
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, for serving

Instructions

Melt the bacon fat or butter in the bottom of a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the onion, celery, carrots, and garlic. Season the vegetables well with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables for about 2 more minutes.
Add the chicken stock and lentils and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer and add the chicken thighs. Cover and continue cooking for 1 hour, checking periodically to make sure the soup isn’t bubbling too much. Remove the chicken thighs and put them on a plate to cool.
Working in batches, blend about half of the lentil soup until it’s thick and creamy. (You can blend all of it if you like a creamy lentil soup, or none of it if you want it completely brothy. I blended about half.) Stir the pureed soup back into the pot. Using two forks, shred the chicken and return it to the pot. Taste and correct the seasoning.
Serve with cheese sprinkled over the top of the bowl.

Adapted from the Kitchn

A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

Heaven.

February 23, 2015 / By Courtney / 12 Comments

I’m convinced if you’re going to call yourself a good cook, there are things you should just know how to do. Baking the best chocolate chip cookies in the world is a great start. If you can do that, you’re on the right track. Then there’s a homemade chicken noodle soup, that’s important too. A killer marinara never hurts, and you’ll be everyone’s favorite person in the world if you can assemble a dish like these Grilled Caprese Baguettes in the summer (Pause to day dream with me, for just a moment).

Yet there was that fickle thing tormenting me in the back of my mind. I’d hear about others doing it; I’d seen it on other blogs. The crusty warm golden perfection that is homemade bread. What was I so afraid of?

This was ridiculous. I can bake. So after a little prompting from my mom, I unearthed a recipe that yields a perfect round warmth of goodness from my very own red dutch oven. As if I needed another reason to madly love that thing more. Now it’s giving me and the boys homemade bread? Swoon.

Is it scary? No. Hard? No, not at all. In fact it was painfully easy. So easy I have a feeling this will be in our weekly repertoire. It’s the perfect thing to make when the temps outside make you want to cry. Slowly rip off a large heavenly chunk, dunk it in a soup, and winter just got a tad bit more tolerable. Oh, and hey – YOU just made homemade bread.

You so rock.

Classic Homemade Bread

2015-02-20 00:31:44

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Ingredients

3 Cups bread Flour
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 Cup warm water (between 105 and 110 degrees)

Instructions

Whisk flour and salt together in a 3-4 quart bowl with a tight lid. Pour dry yeast in the warm water and let it sit for 5 min.
Next, pour water/yeast into flour and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is mixed well. The dough will be quite sticky and shaggy looking, but that's ok. Cover the bowl and set aside for 12 - 18 hours (up to 24).
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a cast iron dutch oven with the lid into the oven while preheating and heat the pot/lid for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape the risen dough from the bowl onto a heavily floured surface. Dough will be sticky.
With floured hands, gently shape dough into a round loaf making sure there is enough flour on the surface so dough doesn't stick. Let the dough just sit there until your pot is preheated.
Take the hot pot from the oven and gently place dough into pot. Cover with the lid and return to the oven and bake for 30 min. Remove the lid at that time and return the pot to the oven for another 10 - 15 min. Gently shake the loaf onto a cooling rack and enjoy.
You made homemade bread!

A Life From Scratch. https://a-life-from-scratch.com/

C’s picks – week of February 22nd.

February 22, 2015 / By Courtney / 1 Comment

Whew. We made it through another deep freeze week. I was hoping we’d see 30’s here in Chicago this coming week, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Sigh. For now, it’s all about the hot pink sunsets and comfort food! 20 minutes is all it takes to put together this week’s menu plan; let’s do this!

Sunday night is dinner with Grandad. He’s bringing the steaks and red wine, and I’m whipping up the sides. I’m thinking perfect roast potatoes, M’s green beans, and a mixed green salad tossed with our favorite dressing. Delicious!

I didn’t get around to making this recipe last week and I really wanted to try it out. It’s on the agenda for Monday night.

For Tuesday, let’s get a killer soup simmering way on the stove. I heart this one oh so much – full of lentils and veggies, it could not be more satisfying.

Wednesday night is a toss up. Between driving baseball studs around and our last (hopefully) village meeting for our expansion, dinner will either be take-out or another night of the lentil soup. No complaints there!

On Thursday, I am dying to try out these southwestern egg rolls. Totally baking them to up the health factor and will serve them with homemade guac.

And that brings us to Friday. With our calendar free, I’m thinking it’s time to bust out our pizza for a cozy night in.

That’s our menu plan for the coming week. What’s cooking in your kitchen? I’d love for you to share a recipe or two!

Motherhood: on sports.

February 20, 2015 / By Courtney / 30 Comments

As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up in a pink home. The world of boys, balls, and sports was beyond foreign to me. Of course, girl world can be full of sports and competition too, but I wasn’t one of those girls. It was all violin, barbies, and piano. Jumping rope on the playground was about as active as I got. My sisters and I played paper dolls inside and made salads out of weeds and acorns outside in the woods.

Then I entered the world of boys. And wow – mine like to run around, like a lot. The natural thing to do is to get them into something – anything – to burn off some of that energy. So around age two while still in diapers, they both began to run off their toddler chub up and down the soccer field. It’s the first activity the little ones can enter around here, and thus our world of sports began.

For L, soccer quickly transitioned to T-ball and Tuff football and so on and so forth. And here we are now possibly faced with baseball drafts and tackle football.

Eek.

My stomach is in a knot. Really… really? Is that what happens now? He’s eight. Does that seem incredibly young to anyone else, or am I just being naïve? I can’t rationalize it all because it all just seems so… intense.

The schedules can be intense. The coaching can be intense. The parents can be intense. People talk about each others kids… or a lot about their own. Try-outs are strange. The politics that go into it all can totally suck you in. Who is better friends with which coach, who has an older brother that has lead the way, who is playing house ball versus travel versus flag versus tackle. Who is playing up, who is playing down. Who is taking lessons, who has a private coach, who did the extra camps. So much chit chat about something that is still so… innocent.

At least I like to think it is.

See, I watch the games to see L’s face light up when he hits that line drive. Or when he slides into second with a goofy grin. I cheer just as hard for his friends – competition or not.

I like to bring popsicles for the little siblings who are cheering on their big brothers, and once in awhile an occasional adult cocktail for that 5PM Saturday practice (wink wink).

I buy Vikings gear when L is a Viking and dress us in red, black, and white to cheer on his best friend in tackle.

I try to teach L to thank the coaches after each and every game because it is a lot of work and time to fit in for dads who simply don’t have a lot of time to give.

I pack full sports gear for B so he can somewhat think he’s on the team while I’m snapping photos of plays and texting them to grandparents. I cheer at an appropriate level and bake hot dog melts after Sunday night baseball practices and serve warm bowls of chili after 45 degree football games. We have teammates over to bond and run and play in our wide open front yard free of rules, parents, and coaches. Always the best games, in my opinion, not to mention we have the most extreme ball and gatorade bottle hunt in the world the next morning (sorry Tina!).

Because that’s the appropriate world of sports in my opinion, for an eight year old. It’s one I can wrap my mind around and be proud to be apart of. It’s what I’m going to continue to encourage and to stand by, as everything else is insignificant. And most importantly, I’m going to be sure that L (and B!) understand that after each and every game all I feel is this.

Who’s with me?
C

P.S. The ‘race to nowhere‘ is a wonderful view, should you have the time.