Growing girls? No problem.

I had to add trim to Number Five's jeans for years, and now it is Number Six's turn. She will beat me soon as she has her dad's tall genes ... I have learned to use old jeans to cut and add new length, and a cute trim (brought some yardage from Brazil) adds a feminine touch! She loved them!

Baklava

I made it yesterday for the first time. It is my favorite dessert in the world. My new iPad in the kitchen was very helpful. I used the recipe from Allrecipes.

Curry Butternut-Coconut Soup

What do we do with all of our squash? We eat it almost everyday in many different ways! Last night I made this delicious soup, partly from an idea given to me by Number One and his girlfriend: Curry Butternut-Coconut Soup!

In a saucepan on medium high, add olive oil and salt and sautee curry (to taste) for about 15 seconds.
Add 2 chopped onions and one peeled, cubed and seeded Butternut
Sautee until onions are translucent, add 4 C water and let it simmer about 15 or 20 minutes
Add one can of coconut milk
Process in blender, it will be very creamy! Enjoy!!

Carrots!

Husband having bought (in my absence) 25 lbs of organic carrots, I had to post a Facebook appeal for recipes. I added that I am glad the kids eat everything I cook and ask for more. Great kids!

A Brazilian friend reminded me of the Brazilian style carrot-cake-in-the-blender. Covered in chocolate, of course. I found two recipes: here and here. Try it!

A great cake!

We have been planning Number Three's graduation lately... I have offered to make the cake!

My cooking is simple, ordinary, and I seldom follow recipes. But one recipe I have gone back to again and again is the Four-Egg Cake in A Continual Feast cookbook by Evelyn Birge Vitz. That is a wonderful sacrament cake--First Holy Communions, Confirmations, Baptisms, Weddings-- I have made it again and again, for over twelve years, and have had consistent, excellent results!

The recipe is a wonderful from-scratch experience, and the kids love to help as each step progresses towards a marvelous tasting result! Vitz' book is much more than a cookbook, it is a lesson in Catholic traditions in the kitchen.... I have recommended it for so many years!

I have decided even if it is not a sacrament, this will be the 2010 Graduation Cake!

My Coconut Chicken

Yesterday I mentioned on my Facebook page that I was making this for dinner... and well, there were some requests. As with all of my recipes, this one has been adapted over the years to fit my simple and busy life. I have developed this recipe from many sources including a soup I loved at a Thai place in NE and a Brazilian a recipe I had in my book Ofelia.

Want to have a break from the winter and taste of tropical weather for dinner? Try...

Ana's Coconut Chicken

About 3 lbs chicken, diced (I use boneless, skinless, frozen)

Sautee in 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fresh crushed garlic and salt to taste

Add:

2 chopped onions

Cover, let it simmer and cook well

Then add:

2 large, ripe, fresh tomatoes, diced

(or a small can of diced or crushed tomatoes)

and a can of Coconut Milk (not coconut cream)

Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so

Variation: add steamed cauliflower before garnish

Garnish with fresh herbs from the garden: chives, cilantro, parsley, very finely chopped. Serve over White Rice (I like to use steamed Jasmine Rice with this recipe),

and Bom Appetite!

Harvest season

Snow or not, it is October... and Number Five took an interesting angle in photographing our incoming harvest squash (Butternut and Blue Hubbarb)... along with our homemade October decorations which dangle from the chandelier.

Garden

Growing green beans and ready-cherries!

Cabbage Worms

I have spent far too long in the garden painstakingly finding and squishing these... keep in mind these photos are blown up--they're tiny. They're in the broccoli, in the Brussels sprouts, in the three types of cabbage. Sigh... The only organic way to deal with them is by hand, one by one.

The garden and its fruits

...and to think I almost didn't start the broccoli back in March since it hadn't done well last year.









Number Five made a leaf wreath, and photographed me in my dominions...

Garden update

Lettuce, peas and cilantro are a few of the things we have been enjoying. Number Seven enjoyed the feeling of being a tomato plant.

Making Naan

Inspired by good friend and gourmet chef Susan Pepino, we attempted the feat last night--and served it with vegetable curry and our own fresh garden spinach in white sauce. Yum! (Susan, please leave a comment with your recipe as the one I found was not as good).

Naan is traditional Indian bread. Delicious! The dough is very much like my pizza crust dough, then we roll it out and pan fry it on an cast iron skillet with a bit of olive oil.

First garden delights of the season

First Asparagus for dinner, and first apple blossoms!

My homemade granola

Here is my granola recipe-- simplified  and adapted from other recipes for the simple life of the Braga-

Henebry kitchen:

Ana's Granola 

Place it on a large baking pan: (I have one that is 18 x 13)  

16 C (or entire  container) old-fashioned oats (I use generic) 

1 1/3 C vegetable oil (any, not olive) --pour slowly all around.

Mix well with big spoon.  

Add: 1 1/3 C honey--pour slowly all around  

Mix well with big spoon.  

Bake it at 280F  45 min to 1 hr depending how dark you like it. 

Mix well a few times while cooling so it doesn't stick together.  

If you want nuts, add them when you first put it in the oven. If you want fruit (raisins, coconut, etc) add them in the last 15 min.  

Bon Appetit!

Pumpkin season

Husband bakes and scrapes pumpkin to use in recipes, I make pumpkin bars and the cats... enjoy the byproducts!

Fifty-Two Butternut Squash

It was an applied Math lesson for Number Seven: she was asked to count them!

Quick garden update

Last night, I finally took pictures.


Each set in order, clockwise, from top left:

Raspberries, peas, Jerusalem artichokes, soft-necked garlic




Chives, rhubarb, mesclun, broccoli





Onions, potato, strawberry, parsley


Not pictured: asparagus, hardneck garlic, cilantro, basil. Not planted yet: green beans, corn.

Potatoes are in!

And just in the nick of time: the forecast doesn't look too... garden-friendly, let's put it this way.

It is the winter-that-never-ends indeed. At this rate I will be planting zucchinis in September! Oh, but by then it may be snowing again. Never mind.