Fro Yo From Yo' Own Home

When my girlfriends and I were walking through the airport in Honolulu, I spotted a sign that made me think the mother ship was calling me home; pinkberry! it's snazzy sign called out to me. I couldn't not try the very yogurt I'd heard so casually referenced in all the Hollywood and NYC magazines I drool over in the grocery lines and when I get the (sadly now) occasional pedicure.

This was no TCBY-I got the original tart and loaded it up with berries and some hot fudge and it was amazing! I had apparently never had 'real' frozen yogurt before, and the tangy zip was perfection. Recently I discovered a little frozen yogurt shop downtown called Peach and Pear, which serves European-style frozen yogurt with hand-made and/or local toppings (excepting the candy such as m&m's) and it was just as I'd remembered Pinkberry. Then, just in the last month another yogurt shop opened even closer to my house (sabotaging my weight-loss plans here people!). Blue Palm Frozen Yogurt has okay yogurt, a lot of them are yocream brand, and it's mainly a fun experience. You get to pick your cup, go through the line and pick your flavors, then load on the toppings. Keep in mind, though, you pay by the ounce so be careful. 

It was fun the first couple of times, until I realized that I was spending an exorbitant amount of money on a frozen treat. (Over $10 when I picked up a single large container without toppings for the fam's dessert). 

Since I bought the ice cream maker, I can kill two (or three) birds with one stone. 1) Spend less money on something that's not a necessity, 2) Have absolute control over the ingredients and 3) Re-create that tangy Pinkberry perfection.

I've heard several mentions of the book The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, but I've yet to purchase it or try any of the recipes. When I googled Frozen Yogurt Recipes, I found that someone in the comments on a generic recipe had referenced both The Perfect Scoop and 101 Cookbooks in the same comment. Hell-o! I love me some Heidi Swanson takes on recipes, so I clicked on over.

Here is Heidi's take on the frozen treat:

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt Recipe

Heidi notes: First off, remember it is important to use good-quality whole-milk yogurt. The version in David's book is Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. This time around I skipped out on the vanilla, opting for straight, bright white yogurt with the sweetness playing off the tang of the yogurt. I also used slightly less sugar than called for here, more like 2/3 cup - but you can go either way depending on what you like.

3 cups (720g) strained yogurt (see below) or Greek-style yogurt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

At the risk of having it become too icy, I'm going to use 0% yogurt, because part of the purpose of this is to find lower/no fat alternatives to my most entrenched addiction: Ice Cream. I think that I'll also experiment with alternative sweeteners next time, but only one rebellious move at a time here. For tonight, I used 3 cups of Fage 0%, 3/4 cup of sugar in the raw and a splash of vanilla. I'll also test out almond and orange extracts in the future, but for now it's good ol' vanilla.

This only took about 12 minutes to freeze in my bowl...it's velvety smooth and I can't imagine added richness from full-fat yogurt.

First off, aren't my new nesting bowls fun?! A great Wold Market find. After mixing the ingredients, you just store them in the fridge to chill for about an hour before transferring them to your ice cream mixer and create your frozen dessert per the manufacturer's directions. I rinsed out the yogurt container and will re-use it to transport the yogurt to our neighbors' house for our dinner/swimming date. Talk about deceptively delicious!

Knit Lits

Over at small things, she was hosting a yarn along for knitters who also love to read. In addition to talking about what you're currently working on, you get to talk about what you're reading as well. Lucky me, I just wrote a post about a couple of my current obsessions reads, but I didn't show what I'm working on. In taking a break from newsboys and large afghans, I thought I'd take a couple days to bust out a new stuffed animal, Ella-funk, which is based on a great pattern from Ysolda Teague (Elijah) and knit with hand painted wool by cosymakes. I love that there's no seaming involved, although some did criticize that picking up stitches for each body part was fussy. I only had trouble with the first two rounds of each new appendage, but after that it was easy-peasy.

I also just finished seaming the body of a 'tattoo' pillow for my friend (for which I'm exchanging yoga classes; long live the barter system!) on which I'll be writing Happy instead of mom, and changed the pattern so that it was about 3 times as big as the original pillow. In addition to the fun stuffed pieces, I have the first sock of two different pairs that are just waiting to be completed.

As for reading, I just finished The Island by Elin Hilderbrand and am currently reading Deep Down True and Arms Wide Open: A Midwives Journey by Patricia Harman, which I expected to be over the top crunchy, but is actually really easy for me to identify with and written in a very thoughtful way, so I'm taking my time with it.

Wait, are you sensing a theme? Yes, I almost never have the discipline to do just one thing at a time. If having one project in process is good, then four is great. Having the characters from several books swirling around in my head is way better than focusing your attention on a single plot-line, right? Sadly, I often find that the answer to that is a resounding no. Therefore, I had to put myself on notice. No more projects may be cast on until I've bound off or put away all of the projects that are sitting around the house mid-knit. Not another spine will be bent until the last page is turned on the books I'm currently reading. Will I be able to curb my enthusiasm? With only one project and book going at once, I definitely notice a significant decrease in the clutter; books on the counter, multiple balls of yarn in the bag by my bed instead of just enough yarn for one, you get the picture.

Plus, with the long days of summer, I want to make sure I'm focusing on the two reasons that I've become so passionate about creating a home that's full of healthful meals, honest fun and a commitment to building a strong family.

Cooking and Canning and Eating, Oh My!

I love my birthday. I know that at a certain age you're supposed to start being blase about it, and not care if you get gifts or not, but I really, really love my birthday. It's the one day that you get to have all to yourself, where people think of thoughtful things just for you, give you well wishes and essentially make sure that you feel special. This year was no exception. I think my family is starting to sense a theme in my current interests: Home decor, running and cooking, with a string of manic knitting sessions thrown in.

As I said before, the Fourth is my favorite holiday. I forgot to mention that that could have a tiny bit to do with the fact that my birthday is right around it, leaving me in the post-birthday high just in time to watch the fireworks, eat food and bask in the glow of family togetherness. Three of my gifts were cookbooks; Canning For a New Generation (which I reviewed here), My Father's Daughter and The Family Dinner and I have loved spending time pouring over them and riddling them with sticky notes for recipes I want to try. I love them all for different reasons, but the one thing they have in common is that they're not a strict cook-book but have a lot of side stories to share. 

The Family Dinner is all about establishing routine, getting your kids involved in the preparation of the meal, and things to do during the meal so that you have a lot of variety and a lot of starting points to tweak and make it our own ritual.  I had already started incorporating a lot of things she mentions, but the one thing I did at the author's suggestion was offering only water at dinner. 

Every night, I felt like I was constantly up and down getting each person the beverage of their choice and now I just have a big ole pitcher of water in the middle of the table. Sometimes I throw in a couple slices of lemon or lime, or muddle some mint, but most of the time it's just crisp Walla Walla tap water. I know that this wouldn't work for every family, because sometimes it's the chance for you to make sure your kids drink enough milk if they're not good at it, but I'm home all day with my kids and I know what they drink. The last thing they need is more sugar. With the blazing temps here, some extra agua at the end of the day never hurts, either.

In My Father's Daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow pays homage to her late father, Bruce Paltrow, in creating a book of recipes and ideas for creating family togetherness through simple goodness and nutritious meals. Plus, I'm a sucker for Gwyneth, so I would love it no matter the topic.

The 'family dinner' is something that has increased in importance to me the longer I'm an at-home mama, which started last year with not creating a separate meal for each person. Since we've moved, I've been successful at all of us eating together at least five nights a week; no exaggeration. J is obviously not always able to eat with us, but when we were in Mass, I had gotten into the habit of feeding the kids quickly and rushing to shuffle them off to bed only to sit by myself and eat whatever meal I pulled together in my exhaustion from the day spent running them ragged. 

Now, I spend the later afternoon hours that the boys are playing quietly running around the house and (glorious) fenced yard like hooligans to get dinner going and on the table by five, five-thirty at the latest. Having my meals planned out at least a week in advance helps keep this task going smoothly. This leaves plenty of time to eat, bathe them, read stories and get just one more (read: 800) drinks of water and still have time to myself. Something that I have found to be very important to me. With such early risers, I take the time that some people get to sip their coffee quietly in the morning when it falls into my lap, which just so happens to come around 7:30 each night. 

As it's now 7:12, the bath routine is winding down (J is home, which means no bath routine for me, yay!). One load of dishes to put into the dishwasher, with a delayed start of 4 hours so I can watch Season 5 of Dexter on demand without the swish and hum to distract me, counters wiped down, change into jammies, wash my face, contacts popped out of my currently drying eyes, feet up and I'm a happy girl. Oh look: 7:19 and the only thing I hear is the ocean waves of their sound machine (and whatever game my beloved has decided to play at almost-too-loud levels on the PS3). Bliss.

Now to cast-on some yummy yarn for a new hat pattern and the evening will be perfection.

Today's Special

We accomplished some big things in the back yard, with only a couple outdoors projects left. J primed the fence over the weekend, so it's ready to be stained. Turning my attention inside I finally got new dining chairs (good-bye rickety IKEA jobbies) and finished the reclaimed window that I cleaned up, poly'd and turned into a chalkboard menu planner. Remember the sad little dining area? My friend over at Recycled Love Letters featured it on her DIY tab. I love both her blog and Young House Love for getting great staging and renovation ideas. I've been obsessively culling all the catalogues that come in my mailbox which I'd previously have just recycled (especially Ballard Designs, Chia'sso and West Elm) for inspiration and have some great ideas to round out the dining room, sitting room and my bedroom.

We separated the boys out, so we no longer have a play room, but I'm going to do a cool chalkboard area in each of their rooms. Hopefully bedtime will go more smoothly now!

Here's the lowdown on the chalkboard project:

Cost:
Window-$15 (random lady's barn :))
Rustoleum Chalkboard Paint (quart, and I'll use the rest for the chalkboard in the boys's rooms)-$12.97 (Wal-Mart)
Hardware for hanging and reinforcing corners: less than $4 each (Wal-Mart)
Rollers for applying paint-less than $5 total (Wal-Mart)
Liquid Chalk Markers (set of 5)-$15 amazon.com
Painter's tape: (already had it)

Remember the before?

I cleaned the window well with glass cleaner and lightly brushed the dust and cobwebs off of the frame. Can you believe I found it painted that awesome lime color?!

Tape off the panes so that I didn't cover that pretty green with chalkboard paint, and then applied three coats of chalkboard paint. Take the tape off as soon as you're done applying the last coat. 

I added l-bracket reinforcement on the corners and then d-ring hanging hardware

I moved the hardware to the front (because the green was the 'back' of the window)

Together with my new chairs from World Market (Very sturdy and I love them!), the dining area's coming together!

And there you have it; A fun one-of-a-kind menu board for under $30. I wonder how much Pottery Barn or Sundance would charge for the same thing?

One Little Word

My sister posted about the 'one little word' concept last year, and I noticed she was doing it again this year. I had struggled back and forth with what my resolution would be this year because there are so many things I'm working on; training for and completing a marathon (huge!), working on one knitting project at a time (I tend to get ahead of myself), getting my house organized (and staying that way), signing up for at least one race a month from March to November, by which time I hope to have shed the last 50 pounds I still want to, and be knocked up again. Be a present and mindful mother and wife instead of someone who's just 'there' a lot. Make healthful meal choices for myself and my family, even when the chinese take-out menus and pizza delivery boys are singing to me, at least five days a week.

How to sum that all up in one resolution? I know! How about instead of trying to use lots of words, I'll just pick one. There will be a lot of roadblocks, and excuses along the way I'm quite sure, but in the end I want to cross that finish line, bind off one by one, and most of all, be a good example to my kids about how you can have what you want if you're willing to work for it in spite of all the things that make what you want really, really hard to get. But more importantly, that you can still have a life outside of your goals.

My husband is the inspiration for this word as whatever he sets out to do, he gets it done. He read the entire Shelby Foote Civil War series line by line, page by page in the space of less than a year. That's a million and a half words on over three thousand pages. He completed Ranger School, and then hung around with those boys for another four years. He muscled through eleven years of higher education to get his first 'real' job. He's becoming quite the accomplished 'car stealer' on Grand Theft Auto (okay, so I won't count that one). He's been married to me for almost eight years, for crying out loud; I bet he'll say that one was the hardest. Perseverance folks.

And this year, I'm gonna get mine. Perseverance.

(Not So) Guilty Pleasures

I love, love, love the food blog 101 Cookbooks. Over the last couple of years, I've become more interested in having a 'natural kitchen.' Ms. Swanson's books Supernatural Cooking, Supernatural Everyday and Cook 1.0 are on my amazon wishlist. I'm gradually switching my kids over to Adams Peanut Butter instead of Jif, honey and maple syrup and sweeteners instead of white sugar (my cryptonite) and the idea that yogurt or fruit with some whipped cream is dessert. This is as much for me as it is for them. Well, actually it's probably more for me than it is for them. I love sweets.

The Game On challenge has been very good for me in helping me to identify the times I eat, the things I eat and, aside from my day off and meal off, eliminating butter, white sugar and white flour from my diet. I am not saying that nobody should use the above ingredients, I'm just saying that I grossly overused them in my daily life. There have been many meals where I found that a spritz of olive oil cooking spray did the job just as well or better than a pat of butter, and meals where I found the opposite. My attempt to make a butterless whole-wheat pie crust was edible, and better than having no pie crust at all on my roasted vegetable tart, but really, I'd rather save pie crust for a day of indulgence and blend those lovely crumbs of butter in.

The contest only goes for four weeks at a time. As we're settling into the third week, I've been trying to prep for ways that I can still implement a lot of the principles of the game in my everyday life in a way that's sustainable. Drinking three liters of water a day is something I should have been doing all along, and one of the facets I'll definitely keep. Drinking black coffee, or no coffee at all? Not so much. However, I've definitely developed a much lower threshold on the sweet factor and am satisfied with a lot less; one tablespoon of creamer is just fine in my coffee instead of the two or three that I would have used before. Also, and I'm admitting this even though it makes me ridiculous, if I were eating grape nuts or a similar cereal before, I'd have sprinkled a little sugar on top. I know. But, I don't anymore, so that's that.

I love to bake, so have been looking for ways to feel fulfilled in that area without feeling like I'm just filling my house with sweets. You can only bring so many treats to the school, afterall. 101 Cookbooks to the rescue again. I found a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe that is not only fairly healthy, but it's a recipe you can make for a vegan friend without having to make any adustments, and it fits into the parameters of the game (if you eat one and count it as your fat for the meal.)

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! I think the biggest trick is in underbaking them a little bit so that they don't get dried out and crunchy. I had my neighbor taste-test them without telling her they were 'healthy' and she liked them. I didn't have whole wheat pastry flour, so I just used regular whole wheat flour and it just adds to the nuttiness of the cookies. Lastly, I measured out almost a cup of the Adams creamy (no salt added) and then topped off the cup of peanut butter called for with some Mara Natha Almond Butter. Yum! My kids loved them as well, and were able to taste-test the batter since it's egg-less. Bon Apetit!