iSonto #46

This week we are thankful for the fun beach outing we took today.

 We have also planted our first tomatoes.

Mercy and Nate have been chasing each other and wrestling each other with lots of laughter. 

We have new babies at church and have been able to give a few meals. 

Elnathan was happy when I said yes to making muffins. They both wanted to wear their aprons and seemed to think the main point of the event was to eat batter from the spoons. Nate has also been busy with cubbies made of blankets. What a delight it was to be invited into the cubby to be greeted with huge smiles from two tiny people, plus kisses of welcome from a small girl.

 Natey's memory verse was "Pleasant words are like the honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and strength to the bones" Proverbs 16:24. Speech is at the top of our list of challenges right now!

Mercy was cute with the new hairstyle pictured at the top of this post. She was also saying "I want" a lot, and pretending a lot with teddy in her rest time or early in the morning. "That's the way teddy" "Don't worry teddy" and even lullabies to teddy and dolly.

From garden to tummies . . . we have been harvesting some tiny garlic bulbs as our stock of old garlic ran out and we have more than enough in the garden!

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from Nancy Pearcy's "Total Truth".

One funny moment was Nate imitating me during prayer time and saying "mmm, mmm, mmm" way too much! Now we need to teach that it is about agreement with specific things in someone else's prayer, not just a regular "mmm" for good measure!

This will be my last iSonto for a while. I am not sure when/if I will resume. I will continue to post irregularly at birthdays or if I have something special to share. Thanks for your interest!

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iSonto #43

This week we are thankful for the sunny days that have allowed more play in the yard.

The children have been playing better together. Here they are sitting happily on a chair reading together of their own accord!

We were able to have one set of neighbours over for dinner and take cookies to a new neighbour.

We have organised our midwife for a homebirth.

Elnathan was a happy napper during a couple of his rest times. Usually he sits in bed and looks at books but occasionally sleep overcomes him!

A verse we are studying together is Exodus 20:12 "Honour your father and your mother". I made four laminated picture memory verses for Elnathan as a nearly two year-old, and have added a couple this year with Mercy in mind, which we love to look at together at lunch time. This is just one of the verses we have been going over together. Mercy is very pleased to say each word after me and Nate is pleased that he can say the whole verse. Everyone is happy!


Mercy was dressed in her new apron which matches mine.We have had some happy times in the kitchen together this week, both children super thrilled to be involved! It is fun that they are getting to this stage. We don't mind the mess as long as everyone is happy.

Mercy also wanted to put away the cutlery, usually Elnathan's job, and she did a remarkable job for a first try considering that it took me months to teach Nate to do it! Maybe the teacher is improving!

From garden to tummies . . . kale for a curry. It is always a pleasure to hear Nate ask "what will we get from the garden for dinner today".

 A book we enjoyed together was Under the Ground, which created many conversations about hot lava and magma!

Now we are following this up with a book on volcanoes. 

Encouragement, ideas and inspiration came from the "Family Vision" devotions I put together when Nate was a baby. This is the first year he has been able to partly appreciate them, and it has been fun to enjoy object lessons like a gift to illustrate faith as a gift, or burning a picture of the earth to illustrate what will happen at the end of the world. The work is paying off with fun family times around God's word . . . and I am so glad I put these together when I had more time for quiet pursuits! Now I am developing a box for the illustrations/objects so I don't need to look for them yearly.

 One funny moment was Mercy bursting into laughter then saying "Mercy funny".

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Healthy date loaf

I have been trying new foods for Elnathan as his appetite is increasing! I have found that he especially needs a good snack in the afternoon. Lately he has been eating an entire banana after his nap! Last week I tried a date cake recipe from Laraine Toms' Cooking for Your Baby: Fresh, health and enjoyable food for babies and children. I like this book because it presents lots of foods that are suitable for the whole family, including the baby. I amended the date cake recipe somewhat, and it turned out more like a sweet bread. It is sugar free and full of great fiber!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
3/4 cup wheatgerm (I used oatgerm)
1 1/2 cups chopped dates (I ran out of dates so used 3/4 cup and added a fresh pear)
1/2 cup sultanas
1 1/2 cups milk

This was the original recipe, but it seemed to me that you couldn't really have a cake without egg or butter! Here are my additions:

1 egg
Small amount of butter rubbed into the flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven.

2. Mix together flour and germ, rub in the butter, and mix through the dates (or dates and pear).

3. Place sultanas and milk in the blender and whiz until most sultanas are part of the liquid. I thought this was a wonderfully unique way to add sweetness to the bread! Add the egg and combine.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and place in a greased loaf tin. Bake for 1/2 an hour - 45 mins or until cooked through.

I wanted to share this recipe as it is one of the few I have tried that are both healthy and very yummy. One friend who visited loves cake and she also gave this recipe a good report! Elnathan loves it, and ate about two slices on the day it was made. Now it is in the freezer and I can pull some out when needed.

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Preserving loquats

Pictured are the results of two sessions of loquat bottling. My Dad has two loquat trees that produce too much fruit for their needs, especially as they compete with cherries at this time of year! We harvested two bucketfuls and most of them are now preserved. Our friends the Baehrs helped us last night. Preserving bees are the best! It is great to work with others. Today I worked on the remaining bucket on my own, and found the process less arduous than I expected. This year we left on most of the skins. These are tough but will be softer with cooking. Loquats have lots of pits (those pictured are a fraction of what was removed), and right now I'm nursing a sore thumb as a result of pitting them. My fingers are thanking me for choosing not to peel them all! Those who have preserved fruit before will know the satisfaction that looking at the finished product brings.

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Haystacks for dinner

Yesterday we enjoyed haystacks for dinner. This is a simple meal of corn chips topped with a bean and tomato mix plus cheese, sour cream, and whatever fresh or canned veggies you want! I'm always looking for meals that can use a variety of garden produce, and this is one. Yesterday we enjoyed fresh lettuce, rocket, and grated carrot from our garden. Elnathan ate some homegrown turnip (frozen prior), plus some pumpkin and avacado. I love meals like haystacks for Sundays as they don't take long to prepare. Sunday is my official rest day, so I don't like to spend it doing lots of cooking.

Another reasonably quick meal we've discovered recently is homemade whole wheat tortillas. These are much cheaper than the store bought variety, and taste yummy! Like haystacks, you can use lots of garden vegetables on them. I think these may well become a summer staple at our home. It is also great to use beans on tortillas and haystacks as they are a frugal and earth friendly option. We're blessed that we happen to love beans!

Here are a few extra photos of our boy . . .

Natey loves to sit by himself, but occasionally falls over so we still put a cushion behind him.

 

He pushes himself right up with his arms when we put him onto his tummy, but doesn't roll yet.

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Moroccan Red Lentil Soup

I'm excited to be able to participate in the Passionate Homemaking Crockpot Carnival! We enjoy this Moroccan Red Lentil soup at our house. Dave is not generally a great fan of soup, but this one is a winner with him. It is filling and very nutritious, full of cheap protein!

2 tbs olive oil
2 large onions
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
7 cups vegetable stock
1 can (about 20 ounces or 440 grams, it doesn't really matter) crushed tomatoes
2 cups dried red lentils, washed and rinsed
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbs fresh parsley (or another fresh herb)
1 tbs chopped fresh cilantro (again, substituting is fine)

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and cook onions until tender, add garlic and spices (except pepper flakes). Place with hot stock, tomatoes and lentils in the slow cooker. Cook for 4 - 5 hours on high, or 8 to 10 hours on low, until the lentils are tender.

Add the final four ingredients and cook on high for 10 minutes.

Eat! Yum, yum -  and some left over to freeze!

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Zucchini Recipes and Ideas

There is nothing like growing your own food for inspiring creativity in using it! When you garden you don't have the luxury of buying only what you need for a recipe. Instead, you have to find recipes for the food you've grown! A lot of people resort to giving away their zucchini to anyone who will take one, because they have so many. Since I'm a more obsessive type, I've instead attempted to find a use for every zucchini we grow. Sometimes I have dreams about zucchini, and think I'll soon join the ranks of the givers of unwanted gifts, but in the meantime I've come across lots of ways to use zucchini. Here are a few that I recommend:

Stuffed Zucchini

If you let your zucchini grow a bit big, this is a fantastic way to use them. Cut the zucchini in half and take the soft inner part where the seeds are. Blanch them in boiling water until softened and drain. Prepare savory rice to your taste - we like to include beans, cheese, onion, some of the zucchini cut from the middle, and herbs. Pine nuts, currants, capsicum and onion can also work. Place rice into zucchini shells, and top with cheese. Bake.

Zucchini Bakes

I have a couple that we like.

* Breadcrumb Zucchini with parmesan and parsley
* Tomato, Zucchini and Capsicum Gratin - oregano and feta gives this one a great flavour

Stir Fries and Curries

Young zucchini are great as part of a general vegetable stir fry, or you can use them in Thai Green Curry. Basically, you can chuck a zucchini in most of these types of dishes!

Soup

This is a new one for me this year, and it is fantastic! I was surprised at how good zucchini soup can taste. You can use big zucchini with success.

Pickles

Another new one for me this year, I tried a zucchini pickle recipe. We will have to wait and see how it turns out, but I tried one someone else had made and it was great.

Egg based dishes

Zucchini can be added as one vegetable in a quiche, or better yet made into zucchini slice.

Muffins and cakes

Savoury muffins with zucchini can be tasty. I recently adapted one with delicious results (or we thought so, anyway). Here it is:

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 cup cheddar cheese
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk or milk (buttermilk gives a lovely tangy flavour - you could also use a combination of natural yoghurt and milk)
3 0z (90g) butter, melted
2 medium zucchini, grated
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
Enough fresh tomato to garnish

Mix up the dry ingredients with the cheese and basil. Mix up the wet ingredients with the zucchini and add. Stir until just combined. Place in muffin cups and top with sesame seed and a small piece of fresh tomato.

Would you believe it, you can also put zucchini in sweet cakes and breads. Zucchini chocolate cake is lovely and moist, and you wouldn't know the zucchini was there!

Pizza

Add a small zucchini as one of the vegetables on pizza.

Miscellaneous

Pop zucchini slices in toasties, dice tiny ones in salads . . . anything! One surprisingly simple and good recipe I came across recently uses zucchini, oil, tomatoes, garlic, olives and parsley to create a vegetable mix that can be eaten hot or cold. It tastes great plain or on toast. I am hoping to experiment with placing it on top of pasta or a grain.



After all this, it is still possible to be inundated with too many zucchinis! I suggest harvesting the flowers for garnishes on salads, or choppping them up as one ingredient in salads. After all, one of the keys to zucchini control is pick 'em young! Pick them in the early morning and keep them in the fridge until needed.



If you have a lot of yellow zucchini, or patty pan squash like those above, the perfect thing to do with them is make Tammy's Chicken Squash Bake. We love this! Since we don't have a functioning grill, we just bake it for the last part. I also just use ordinary cheddar cheese, and it is fine.

I am happy to provide any of the recipes for these ideas on request. If you have further ideas for using zucchini and squash, please let me know!

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Birthday cakes and baby bumps

On Saturday it was the twins' 2nd birthday. It was fun to decorate cakes for the little ones. One of my nephews was being serious type. He looked at his engine cake without a smile . . .



and made some unsuccessful attempts to blow out the candles.

This one, on the other hand, grinned as we sang happy birthday and successfully extinguished both candles! Right after, he decided it was time to eat the lion's ear.


I can't tell you what a joy it is to be in the kitchen again making yummy things for people to enjoy. One of the main ways I show love to people is to feed them, and it was hard when I could hardly prepare any food due to all-day-sickness. For a few weeks there, even opening the fridge door could send me rushing to the toilet bowl. Something went wrong with my nose! Reading recipes, something I usually enjoy, became nausea inducing. I'm happy to say that all is back to normal now, and I'm loving my birthday present . . .


This wonderful book contains just about everything you could hope to know about food and cooking! What a blessing it is to be able to look up a particular food that we have in the garden, or that comes to mind, and find ideas for how to prepare it. It does not have any pictures, but that does not worry me.

Since it is the last week of the month, and I've promised baby bump updates, here is a picture taken two days ago at 16 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy.


That may not look like a bump to you, but my tummy sure looks different to us!

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Yum, yum the Ghanan way

Our Somalia prayer night went well. It is cruel of me to take pictures of people while they're eating, but I couldn't resist as we were eating with our hands! I was making a lot of excuses for various lacks on Saturday night, and one of those lacks was cutlery. I didn't put any out because after all, are we sure they have cutlery in Somalia? Some people chose to find their own, but some of us tackled it with our fingers. I enjoyed eating this way! Oh, and do you think Somalis have lots of soft drink or juice? No, no, they would be lucky to have water. Coffee? No, no. I got tripped up on that one, as friends quickly pointed out that Africa is the place for coffee!

Our dinner was Ghana style rice and beans as I could not find any recipes for Somali food. I thought it was delicious! It would be a great way to use up leftover this and that, which can be added as toppings. It would also be yummy in summer with garden produce - freshly sliced corn kernels, tomatoes, and zucchini. As one of my nephews would say: yum, yum. We can learn a lot from Africans about how to cook yummy, cheap food for lots of people.

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Soup for dinner?

Soup has traditionally been thought of as a first course to a three course meal. I don't know about you, but I never make three course meals! So soup and homemade bread has become a full meal for us. It is filling and nutritious, and there is not really a need for anything else. Besides, I can make a whole huge pot of it, freeze some, and have easy meals stored away. The gift of a giant pot (not pictured) was one of my most valuable wedding presents!


Our table is full of wedding/engagement gifts. Place mats, plates, bowls, pot, glass candle sticks, salt grinder . . . we also love using some crystal candle sticks that Dave's Mum and Dad gave us. It is wonderful to have a table that reminds of us of the many loving people God has placed in our lives.

What about you? Do you ever serve just soup and bread for a main meal at your house?

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What do I do with . . . beetroot?

And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
Genesis 1:29

God causes our food to grow . . . and then we have to work out what to do with it! Part of our Creation Mandate of having dominion over the earth is learning to creatively and carefully use the resources God has given in the form of food.

Since having a garden, I've been developing plans for what to do with various crops. Here are some beetroot ideas . . .



Dave is eating roasted beetroot with pasta. This is ultra-simple. Roast the beetroot with olive oil. Heat up some cream to boiling point and melt grated parmesan in it. Mix these with the pasta and serve! Beetroot and parmesan go well together.



Dave has encouraged me to develop skills in preserving food, and these are my first efforts! Two jars of pickled beetroot! They have yet to meet the taste test.


Here Dave is cooking a beetroot risotto. This was delicious, and a beautiful scarlet colour! We roasted the beetroot before putting it into the risotto.

We have also used roasted beetroot in green salads, and in potato salad.

Do you have any further beetroot ideas . . . I'll gratefully receive them!

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Homemaking mishaps: burnt offerings

Like most new wives, I want to cook my husband nearly everything he wants to eat. Steak and kidney pies are the exception.

My husband likes two different types of pies that I make, spinach & cheese and potato & bean. So on a couple of occasions I set out to make them. The trouble is that they ended up badly burnt on the bottom. The puff pastry on the bottom had to be scrapped off. I discovered that our oven is too hot and nothing can be put on the shelf nearest the element. These burnt offerings were honest mistakes.

My second example of a burnt offering is much stupider. I placed a tray of baked potatos on a hotplate, not realising that I'd left it on. Naturally, the bottoms of the potatoes turned black.

My third and forth examples of burnt offerings involve overflowing cakes. If you are unfortunate enough to decide to try and fit as much cake mixture as possible into a tin, you may find that as it cooks it spills to the bottom of the oven and makes a delightful, thick crust of charred cake mixture. The most memorable example of this was a lemon curd cake that kept overflowing so that I had to place a tray underneath it. I found myself eating lumps of lemon curd cake as it cooked on the tray. Unfortunately, a lot of the cake ended up on the floor of the oven, meaning the oven required a thorough cleaning before it could be used again.

Do any of you have burnt offering experiences to share?

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