A Thought

Thought I'd transfer some posts from an old blog over to this one.  Here's one I called "A Thought":

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed. ~ G. K. Chesterton 

I love the above quote. It is so true even for today's literature - at least good literature that could be classified as epic. Take for example, Harry Potter. Many people (especially Christians) have issues with Harry Potter because the evil in it is so great. (Aside: yes, of course the evil in it is great! Why? Because the evil in OUR story is so great. Watch Epic by John Eldredge to see what I'm talking about here). Anyways, things like Harry Potter aren't there to introduce evil to children/teens. They're there to show that evil can be defeated. It shows, as our story shows, that good triumphs over evil. The villain will always be put down. You see this in any other epic literature - for example, Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. And of course many more. But I like that thought - not introducing evil to children (children already know that evil exists) but showing children that evil can (and will) be defeated. Sure the battle will be long, and hard, and horrible - but it will end with good triumphing over evil. Why? Because that's our story and that's how our story will end - good (Jesus) triumphing over evil (Satan) once and for all.

Ginger Beef .... MMMM Good!

So, this is something I've been wanting to try for awhile. I love going out for Chinese food but with Annalise's peanut allergy it's harder to feel comfortable going out for ethnic foods so I thought now is a good time to try making my own from scratch. I followed the recipe from this website. Didn't have all the ingredients - no green onions, no garlic cloves (so added garlic powder), no rice vinegar (so substituted balsamic vinegar on the advice of another website that gives good ideas for substitutions), and I added yellow peppers. Darran said it tasted better than any restaurant ginger beef he has had. :) I did find it way to spicy though. The recipe called for 3 tsp of chili flakes. I think next time I'll start with 1/2 tsp and go from there. :) So, here's photos of my process and end result. :)

This is the beef in the corn starch, water and egg mixture ready for the wok.

Missed a picture of cooking the meet but this is stir-frying the veggies (carrots, yellow peppers, ginger and garlic ... 1/4 cup of ginger! Wowzers!)

Added the sauce: soy sauce, balsamic (or rice) vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and chili flakes.

Added the beef back in. Stir it all up to coat it all in the sauce, turn the heat off so that the sauce can thicken and mmmmmm! smells so good! :)

And here's the finished product on a bed of rice. And, yes, I even used chopsticks to eat it (well most of it until my hand cramped due to not being used to eating with chopsticks ... then I switched to a fork). :)  This was SO delicious and tasted just like some of the better ginger beef I've had in restaurants (although way spicier ... too spicy -  hence me wanting to make changes next time). I highly recommend this recipe! :)

I'm rather enjoying being more adventurous in the kitchen and I think Darran is also enjoying it! :) It was too spicy for Annalise but hopefully she'll try it next time.

Bagels!

Today I decided to try my hand at bagels. This is not a recipe found on Pinterest ... but it still qualifies for this blog because it's creative. :) Me and creativity don't get together in the kitchen often but I've been wanting to do more creative cooking and baking lately. The last new thing I attempted was homemade whole wheat pita bread which turned out wonderfully! I decided to flip through my "Breads" cook book from Company's Coming (http://www.companyscoming.com/cookbooks/original-series/breads/1/BR/) to see if there was something I'd like to try and came across the recipe for bagels. It looked simple enough so I decided to try them ... with the help of my 2-year-old of course. :)

So the recipe called for active dry yeast instead of instant yeast and I'm more used to using instant yeast. I was successful with the active dry yeast but I think next time I make these I'll try with instant yeast to see if it makes any difference.

The recipe called for the dough (once it had risen, been punched down and separated into equal portions) to be rolled out into 10 inch long ropes. Then the ends had to be joined together to form a circle. After the first couple bagels were complete, I found that 10 inches was quite long and would result in rather thin bagels (and it did). So the rest I tried to do with shorter ropes and found more satisfying results.  I don't have pictures of all the steps leading up to the poaching (never knew bagels had to be poached until today), unfortunately. Annalise had great fun rolling out her own bagels and her two got to go on her own special tray in the oven. By they way, hers turned way better than mine - funny how that happens.

So here's pictures starting at the poaching of the bagels:

Poaching the bagels - I had doubts about this process and was pleasantly surprised that it all worked out. :)

Poached bagels are ready for the oven - sesame seeds sprinkled on top. This is close to the end of the whole batch. Annalise freaked out at the idea of seeds on the bagels so we left one plain for her.

Bagels baking in the oven. :)

These are the ones Annalise made - turned out way nicer than mine. :) One with seeds (heaven forbid!) and one without. :) She was so excited to eat them that when we told her they had cooled down enough and it was supper time, she ran with it to the table, prayed and started eating before Darran and I could get there! They were so delicious and fluffy. I know bagels at the store tend to be quite heavy so I'm not sure if this is just a different kind of bagel (apparently it's the New York style bagels that are quite heavy) or if I did something wrong, but we were quite pleased with them! :) 

We topped them with our own flavoured cream cheese - Maple Cream Cheese and Garlic Cream Cheese. To make Maple Cream Cheese, you buy plain cream cheese, use about half the small container and add about 1 tbsp of maple syrup. Blend well. For the Garlic Cream Cheese, you use half the small container of plan cream cheese and add about a 1/4 tsp of garlic powder (though next time I will try Epicure's Herb & Garlic seasoning) and blend well.

My next creative kitchen adventure will be making Naan bread and I promise to blog about that one too! :)

It's a Jungle in There!

Ok, this is not something I found in Pinterest but it is somewhat crafty (and more crafty than some things I've seen on Pinterest) so that makes it Pinterest worthy and allowable for this blog. :)

So, Annalise has a jungle themed room. We decided on this theme because this kids loves lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, etc. We put animal decals on her walls and a "leaf tent" over her bed (courtesy of Ikea). Today I added something new to a wall. This is something that I used in my classroom when I was teaching Kindergarten and Grade 1. I don't know if I'll ever teach those grades again and I was getting sad/nostalgic seeing my bulletin board things in a box rather than a wall so I decided to put some to use. The addition to Annalise's wall is from a unit I taught on trees and seasons. :)  Here's the photos:

It's a tree! :) (and yes, I'm aware that one branch is lighter than all the others ... I made do with the supplies I had available while teaching). :)

A closer picture. Annalise looked at it and said, "Oh a tree! It looks like pretty!" and then, upon a closer inspection, said, "Mommy, where's the nest for the bird?" So apparently I'm now going to make a nest and some birds to add to this tree. :)

Potty Party Chart

Potty training is happening in full force in our house. Some days Annalise can make it all day without an accident; some days there are just way too many accidents. Because of this, we are still using a potty chart to reinforce good potty skills. There's something about the potty charts to print off online that I just don't like. They're too limited sometimes and not specific enough other times. The ones that had specific categories mostly had categories we were beyond teaching our girl so they were still useless. I decided I had to make my own and there was one I saw on Pinterest that I really liked and Annalise likes it too (which is, of course, a bonus). :)  Credit where credit is due (of course) so this is the link where I got the idea http://prudentbaby.com/2010/01/baby-kid/diy-potty-training-chart-2/ and the creator of this lovely chart wonderfully created pdfs to print so people could make their own similar charts. :) So, here is my version of the chart. I can't show you all the steps because I didn't take photos of all the steps (Mommy brain at fault). I used materials I had on hand. There was a piece of wood in our basement which seemed like it would be a good size so I grabbed that, found a roll of wrapping paper that didn't look too Christmasy (we only have Christmas wrap for some reason) and ribbons to match. Glue, tape and scissors were also necessary and, of course, the print-outs of the images to attach to the chart :)

This is the complete chart (and you can see there are already "stickers" attached - so proud of my little girl! :)

This is detail of the top. As you can see, my board could have been wider so that I could have fit the title on better but this still works. :)

And here's detail of the bottom. :) Annalise is proud of all the panty "stickers" on her chart! :)

Sparkling Snowflakes

Yesterday was a cold, cold day. Little Annalise needed some Mommy time as we've had a busy couple of days. What better way to enjoy each other's company while staying warm on a cold day than making snowflakes? :)  This website: http://innerchildfun.com/2011/12/10-winter-crafts-activities-for-tots.html has a bunch of wonderful winter crafts to do with toddlers. I chose one and we got to work.

Supplies:
construction paper
double-sided tape
tin foil

While I got the paper ready with the tape, Annalise tore up the tin foil (or, as she calls it, Tim Oil). It was a great way to keep her occupied and train her fine motor skills.

You can't see it very well, but there is double-sided tape on the paper. You put the tape down in different snowflake shapes.

Next step - take the little pieces of "Tim Oil" and stick it to the double-sided tape. Annalise had fun with this. She got really into it and pretended the foil was orange juice that she had to poor all over the paper. Then she squished it all onto the tape. Whatever didn't stick, went back into the container for Mommy to use. :)

This is mine. It was fun to do crafts with Annalise. Hopefully more crafts will come soon! :)

Pretty Trash

So it's been some time since I've posted here ... but it's been some time since I've been creative (either on my own or with my oldest daughter). December was insanely busy, of course with Christmas, but it is also the month my mom went to be with her Saviour. We praise God that she is no longer suffering! But with sorrow and busyness, crafting gets pushed to the side. It's hard to be creative when your heart is breaking. We are getting settled back into our routines now and, oddly enough, my creativity has come back stronger than it has been for about 8 years or so! This makes me glad ... my heart has a way to express itself again.

So, this post isn't super creative/heart expression but it's something I've wanted to do for a while because I think these are so cute. Shortly after doing this craft, I sat down to paint and that is where my heart expression could come out. However, that painting is a gift for a friend and I will not post about it here until the friend has received it (so as not to spoil the surprise). :)

This post is about a pretty, cute, little trash can for the car and this (http://calicoandcupcakes.blogspot.ca/2011/08/repurposed-project-car-trash-can.html) is where I got the idea. :)

Supplies required are an empty Costco size Cascade dishwasher 'pods' container, modge podge, a sponge brush, scrapbook paper and scissors.

Oh, and wine. It's good to have a glass (and bottle) of wine as you craft. :)

Empty, clean Cascade container - Costco size.

Pretty scrapbook paper. :)

Modge Podge the bin, wrap paper on it, modge podge on top of the paper to seal it (2 or 3 coats). As an afterthought, I realized I should have removed the Cascade labels from the container. Too bad but it still looks alright and, after all, it is just a trash can - it doesn't have to be perfect! :) It was a bit annoying wrapping the paper as the roundness of the bin made it a slight (very slight) challenge to get the paper flush with all the sides. I managed though. (Sorry for the lack of "during" pictures.)

Pop the lid back on and you're done. I actually ended up popping the lid off again so I could put a plastic shopping bag in to act as a garbage bag. May as well keep the pretty trash can clean and pretty! :)

It was a fun and easy craft and I think I will make a second one for Darran's car. Only then I have to first get some more masculine looking scrapbook paper. :)