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Yeah. Then that happened.

It’s been a busy couple days on the farm.

Logan had his braces put on Monday, only to discover an abscessed tooth… So exactly 2.5hours after getting braces on his lower teeth he was having emergency oral surgery to yank out a tooth that was rotted to the root.

So what did I do in those 2.5 hours? I fed him a milkshake and three cookies.

I was like, ” Here! Eat! All! The! Sugar!”

All! The! Sugar!

EAT IT! ALL! And drink it, too!

This is especially remarkable because I don’t give him sugar. Ever. The kid doesn’t even have boxed cereal or instant oatmeal. The kid hadn’t had a cavity. But now he has an abscessed tooth.

Logan asked if getting his tooth out would feel more like a Tarantula bite or a cobra bite. I told him neither. He said, No, on a scale of tarantula bite to cobra bite, how much will it hurt?

Umm. Here, eat another cookie. I had bought extra and stuffed them in my purse for just these sorts of questions.

Eat your feelings, kiddo.

So I call my awesome boss, explained I won’t be in bc of unforeseen circumstances, and take Logan on to have his procedure where upon looking in the kid’s mouth, our ( beloved) dentist says:

“Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s an emergency” and motions to his assistants to bring all. The. Numbing. Medications.

I’m gonna need more milkshakes and cookies now. Stat.

The tooth was in such gross shape the dentist insisted on putting it in his special Tooth Fairy Priority Same Day Delivery Drop- Box at his office ( aka the bio hazard box)

“oh yeah, we have a very special box for teeth like these”

He told Logan he would attach a note with his address and not to be surprised if the tooth fairy delivered early. Which is of course exactly what happened. Logan got home and almost immediately found $5 under his pillow BEFORE EVEN GOING TO SLEEP! Amazing.

Tooth fairy pays a premium on teeth yanked the same day a kid gets braces, you know.

Logan refused to eat dinner ( for obvious reasons) and woke up for school the next morning in pain but rushing because he really wanted to see his friends. He cried when I told him I was keeping him home until he ate a full meal. Which he thankfully did at lunch.

I took him to school for the last 90 minutes of the day so I could at least have time to clean the house.

I did that. He got home from school and I thought I could finally have a minute to sit down on my couch and thumb through the latest Oprah magazine.

That’s when our Alpaca, Asher, looked in at me on the couch.

…Through our living room window.

And spit on it.

Asher, it would seem, has an opinion of Oprah, and it’s not positive.

I knew at that moment, as only a woman getting side-eye through the living room window from a herd of loose alpacas can know, that my day’s work was actually just beginning. The alpacas had escaped and were about to eat the neighbor’s rose bushes, kick the other neighbor’s dog, and inflict a never-before-imagined plague of biblical proportions on the neighborhood, at a trot of 17 miles per hour.

Luckily, I still had cookies in my purse.

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Recipe: Black-Eyed Peas and Greens

God Bless the Whole Foods.

On our last visit up to Louisville to go grocery shopping, a WF staffer was preparing a black bean and collard greens stew, handing out samples. As a rule, we’ve always been impressed with the recipes Whole Foods features, and this was no exception. Logan even liked it.

But, while Matt loves ‘greens, and Logan will eat them, I hate them. The recipe had to change if we were going to use it.

So we changed it. Several times. And now we all like it.

This recipe is extremely healthy, quick (if you’re using canned beans or already cooked some the day before) and affordable. It uses items already in my pantry (win!) And what I had to purchase (dried beans, collard greens or cabbage) are pretty cheap.  The recipe also makes enough for leftovers, and the next-day version of this dish is almost better than the fresh-off-the-stove one.

Collard greens have a tendency to be bitter, whereas cabbage cooks up sweet. Swapping one for the other completely changed the overall taste to something our whole family likes.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 red onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 head of cabbage, cut (or a bunch of collard greens…but the cabbage tastes better)

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

3 cups cooked black-eyed peas, rinsed and cooked* (see notes below)

1 cup no salt added tomato sauce

1/2 cup vegetable broth ** (see notes below)

1.5 TBSP hot sauce

2.5 TBSP apple cider vinegar

1.5 tsp smoked paprika

DIRECTIONS

Sauté the onion and garlic in a little broth until translucent. Add the greens or cabbage, water and salt. cover the pot and cook the cabbage/greens about 10 minutes. Add the black-eyed peas, tomato sauce, broth, vinegar and hot sauce and stir to blend. Cover the pot and let cook for about 5 minutes more. Salt and pepper to taste. 

* For good step-by-step directions for converting dry black-eyed peas in to cooked black-eyed peas, go here

**To make your own vegetable stock (And at $4/32oz for the organic stuff you really, really should) go here

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Recipe: Logan’s Favorite Stew

I’ve made this beef stew a few times in the last two years, made some adjustments, and recently stumbled on a combination of ingredients that made Logan ask for three full bowls of it and then request that we also have it the next night. And every night after that.

It’s easy, it’s healthy, it’s cheap. And tasty.

…about the ingredients: We use Pomi tomatoes (comes in a box) because they are BPA-free. The taste is also superior to canned tomatoes. They are available at Whole Foods and on Amazon and might be available in some other grocery stores, though I’ve never seen them anywhere but Whole Foods.

…We use organic vegetables.

INGREDIENTS:

1lb round beef steak, cut in to 1″ cubes

1 box Pomi diced tomatoes (24 oz…)

2 cups water*

3 cubes Beef Bouillon*

*OR 3 cups beef broth

2 potatoes, diced

3/4 cup dried minced onion

4 carrots, chopped

1 15oz can green beans, with liquid

1 15oz can whole kernel sweet corn, with liquid

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp Kosher salt

1/4-1/2 tsp pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Combine all ingredients in large crock pot, stir,  cover and cook on high 6 hours.

That’s it. Really.

Enjoy.

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Recipe: Chicken Pot Pie

No pictures available because we all ate it wayyyyy too fast. Everyone had seconds, including my good friend who only eats rabbit food. That should tell you something.

My husband asked that I make this every week.

I used a new pie crust recipe–one that is flakey and really delicious. It’s a keeper. You will need to double that recipe if you want to use it for this.

This chicken pot pie recipe is modified slightly from one at allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – cubed (I just used leftover cooked chicken from a roast chicken the day before)
  • 1 cup sliced carrots
  • 1 cup frozen green peas
  • 1/2 cup sliced celery
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/3 cup chopped onion
  • 1 potato, chopped/diced small
  • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1/4tsp poultry seasoning
  • dash of garlic powder
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 1 1/3 cup whole milk
  • ADDITIONAL CHICKEN STOCK for boiling vegetables, see below

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
  2. prepare pie crust, pre-cook bottom crust for 10 minutes.
  3. In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, peas, and celery. Add chicken stock to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
  4. In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions and diced potato in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
  5. Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
  6. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
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Recipe: Killer Quiche

I call it killer for reasons that will appear obvious once you read the ingredients.

…It’ll kill ya. With awesomeness. And possibly a mid-life heart attack.

With our flock of almost-30 free-range organic chickens, I normally sell out of our eggs, but  I try to keep a private stash of two dozen eggs on-hand so we can bake and cook.

Sometimes, though, that stash grows to three dozen…or four dozen…and I’ve got to use them up. So we’ve started eating quiche for dinner once a week.

Let me back up….we eat quiche once a week; I make it once a month.

I make four at a time, freezing three and cooking one.

We don’t do frozen dinners like pizza or lasagna or whatever because of all the processed, chemical junk in them, so this is the next most convenient thing. This way Matt has an easy dinner already made to just put in the oven on nights I’m at work.

Recipe is adjusted to personal taste from one on allrecipes.com…as always, please consider using organic ingredients when possible.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1/2 pound thick sliced bacon
  • 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
  • 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts (check out my apple pie recipe for a good pie crust recipe)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, finely diced
  • 2 cups finely diced smoked ham
  • 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
  • 8 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 4 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 6-8 eggs (8 jumbo eggs will leave you with too much egg mixture)
  • 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
  • 1 tablespoon dried parsley

 

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside. Cook spinach according to package instructions. Allow to cool, then squeeze dry.
  2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Saute onions until soft and translucent. Stir in mushrooms, and cook for 2 minutes, or until soft. Stir in ham and cooked bacon. Remove from heat.
  3. In a large bowl, combine spinach, sour cream, salt and pepper. Divide, and spread into pie crusts. Layer with bacon mixture. Mix together Monterey Jack, Cheddar and Parmesan, and sprinkle over pies. Whisk together eggs, half-and-half and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, and pour over pies.
  4. Place pies on baking sheet, and bake on middle shelf in preheated oven for 40 minutes. The top will be puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven, and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
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New Favorite Frosting Recipe

If you’ve been reading my blog since its beginning, you know how long my hunt for good frosting has taken.

I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I finally found it.

Really.

I used it to frost a few platters full of cupcakes for a kiddie Halloween party we had this week.

It’s rich, it melts in your mouth, and the first adult to have one of those cupcakes asked for the recipe–for the frosting…

This recipe makes enough for, like, a gazillion cupcakes…or four dozen. Somewhere between those two numbers.

This recipe has been slightly altered from one at allrecipes.com  …mostly in the directions.

RICH & REAL Buttercream Frosting

2 cups , softened, room-temp BUTTER (NOT shortening)

8 cups Powdered Sugar (gentle scoops, don’t pack it in there)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp REAL vanilla (or whatever flavor your heart desires)

6 fluid ounces cream or half &half

…use organic when possible; I really do think it makes for a better tasting final product.

Ideally in a stand mixer, cream the butter. Add sugar, cup by cup, creaming it as you go.  Add salt, slowly, still blending. Add vanilla. Add cream/half&half. Beat until fluffy.