Archive for the ‘what's cooking’ Category

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our late bloomers

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

For awhile I thought we were only going to get one tomato and one cucumber from our plants. Remember when I told you I was trying to manually pollinate them? Well, we’ve got almost 20 tomatoes and 6-7 cucumbers now. Just in time for the cold weather!

I was hoping we could harvest some more before the first frost, but the weatherman said next week we’ll have winter-like temperatures. Whaa? Cross your fingers for us! In the meantime, look at the yummies we got to eat.

cucumber

tomato

tomato

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what’s new on julie-k:
backpacks, stars, plastic granny squares, and birthday shirts.

Posted in life in lincoln, mirabella, what's cooking | 1 Comment »

bella’s birthday

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

bella turns three

Last Sunday was so incredibly fun. There were lots of treats, wrapping paper and bows, and squeals of excitement! I’ve uploaded pics to the gallery here.

Posted in life in lincoln, life outside of lincoln, mirabella, other creative stuff, patterns, what's cooking | 2 Comments »

blueberry buckle cake

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

If this post makes you hungry, you can blame Sarah. The other day we were up by Russ’s Market and I remembered her blogging about blueberries on sale. Bella and I bought some and then came home and made this:

blueberry coffee cake

It took me awhile to find a recipe that didn’t include a whole stick of butter. I settled on this one for a few reasons: it made two small loaves instead of one big cake and it said “freezes well.” Awesome way to spread out those calories! We cut into the frozen loaf today and it’s just as tasty as the first.

modifications: I used Light Smart Balance instead of butter. I also used a half whole wheat/half unbleached flour mixture instead of all white bleached.

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new on julie-k: twinkle, twinkle little chromium star

Posted in life in lincoln, what's cooking | 1 Comment »

dad’s photos

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Right before my parents leave after a visit, my dad lets me download all of the photos from his camera to my computer. I love going through them. Here are three of my favorites from last week.

july 4th parade in seward

4th of july parade in seward, ne

chasing bubbles

chasing bubbles in the backyard

having fun at lost in fun

having fun at “lost in fun”

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new on julie-k: two new tote bags!

Posted in life in lincoln, mirabella, other creative stuff, what's cooking | 1 Comment »

bedtime friends

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

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new on julie-k: formula one applique

Posted in life in lincoln, mirabella, other creative stuff, what's cooking | 1 Comment »

loving the open road

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

drive to hastings nebraska

I love driving in the Midwest. It started with a trip T and I took across country while we were dating. Our country is so beautiful. There is so much to discover here and driving is the best way to find it. I especially love how each state has its own beauty: rocky and hilly, lush green grasses, golden fields. The latter really helps you understand the line “amber waves of grain.” Watching the wind blow through them is really wonderful.

When we headed out to Hastings last week, I got that same giddy feeling. The drive was less than two hours, but it filled me such happiness. I could feel the stress of daily life just melt away. The sky out here is so big and blue. You can see so far! I know there are places that have bigger skies and longer horizons, but this was enough for me. I feel so lucky that this is practically in my backyard. I also feel lucky to have the peace and quiet to soak it in. Road trips during nap time are especially nice.

bella napping

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new on julie-k: coffee sleeve of the month giveaway: spring flowers

Posted in life in lincoln, mirabella, other creative stuff, what's cooking | No Comments »

a healthier amish friendship bread recipe

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

mini loaves

A few months ago, Lauren gave me some Amish Friendship Bread starter with this recipe. I made a few loaves for us, then I kept the next batch of starter and made a bunch of loaves as Christmas presents for friends. I really like this bread and have been storing the extra starter in the freezer so I can make more. Now it’s becoming an every day snack instead of a treat, so I had to adjust the recipe to make it a little bit healthier. The result is definitely not as sinful as the original, but it’s still pretty darn tasty!

1 cup amish friendship bread starter
3/4 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp (kosher) salt
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chopped craisins
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Spray 2 medium loaf pans or 4 mini loaf pans with light olive oil.
• Combine ingredients.
• Pour the batter evenly into the pans.
• Bake for 45-60 minutes until wooden toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool for 5 minutes and turn onto a backing rack to finish cooling.

What I changed: Swapped real eggs with egg substitute to cut out some cholesterol. Swapped oil for pumpkin puree (pumpkin is a Super Food!) Used skim milk and swapped 1 cup of white flour for whole wheat. Skipped the instant pudding. My original recipe had you dust the greased pan with sugar. Skipped that step, as well. I also ignored the “Don’t use anything metal” warning in the recipe and threw all of these ingredients in my big fat blender. It really speeds up the whole process, plus it’s easy to pour and clean up.

Some other starter tips: If you are using a ziploc bag, it’s ok to let the air out after a few days to avoid a starter explosion. (Yeah, this really happened to a friend of mine!) It’s not the end of the world if you can’t mix ingredients or bake on the exact day. I’ve kept starter in the refrigerator after day 10 for a few weeks and it turned out fine. I’ve even put it in the freezer for future use. As long as it doesn’t turn weird colors, it will be fine. And speaking of the freezer, the bread freezes very well. I usually make the mini loaves and freeze the extra ones as soon as they have cooled.

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Posted in life in lincoln, recipes, what's cooking | 2 Comments »

a million little pieces

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Ok. That’s a little bit of an exaggeration. I’m talking about all of the Christmas toys that come with too many pieces and nothing in which to store them. I have to give a thumbs up to the folks who designed M’s drum. They put a handle on it, so you can turn it upside down and store the drumsticks and other instruments inside. Brilliant!

Her awesome eco-friendly tea set could have used an awesome eco-friendly tote or basket, though. And it would have been great if her cute wooden “paper” doll set came with a cute wooden lid. Plus, there is the growing collection of matchbox cars and Thomas trains. I needed to get control over all these bits and pieces, so I sewed up a bunch of drawstring bags last weekend.

bella bags

These were super easy and economical. I bought the set of fat quarters from Michael’s with my 50% off coupon, the ribbon came from a thrift store and the muslin lining came from one of my amazing garage sale fabric scores last summer. Total for all of the bags: about $4. The design is a slightly modified version of this tutorial from happythings, which I found through the sew, mama, sew blog. I love these so much, I’m thinking of making some for my knitting projects. M thinks they’re pretty cool, too.

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Posted in england, life in lincoln, mirabella, other creative stuff, sewing, what's cooking | 3 Comments »

donuts!

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

That word means different things to different people. If you ask T about donuts, he’ll think you are talking about spinning the car around in the ice and snow. It’s an event, as in, “I’m going to an empty parking lot to do donuts.” (In Nebraska, they call them cookies. Weird, huh?)

Let’s talk about the other kind of donut, though. The tasty kind. Over the weekend we were killing time while waiting to pick up a pizza. I decided to dive in to the closest thrift store while T and M hung out in the warm car. I usually do a quick loop to check fabric, yarn and craft stuff, and then breeze through kitchen and household items before heading out. This trip I found something really cool in the kitchen section: donut pans! They looked brand new and were $4 for the set. Ever since I got Jessica Seinfeld’s book, I’ve thought about making donuts, but never really took the time to investigate the molds. I snatched them up and made donuts the very next morning.

donuts

They are baked, not fried, so they are more like cake donuts. The only modification I made was to use all pumpkin puree instead of half pumpkin/half sweet potato. The first batch turned out a little small. I didn’t know how much they would rise, so I didn’t want to fill them too high. We got a bunch of little, skinny donuts. I used a lot more batter for the second batch and they turned out great. Better than great, actually. My family inhaled them. I’m surprised they left any sugar on the plate!

donut

Posted in life in lincoln, what's cooking | 2 Comments »

mmm… homemade salsa

Monday, June 16th, 2008

salsa

Tonight we stayed in and grilled up some salmon for dinner, along with some steamed asparagus and baked potatoes. Our menu seemed a little dull, so I decided to jazz it up a bit with some salsa for the salmon. I imagine this would also taste great on grilled chicken.

Tomato, Basil and Mandarin Orange Salsa
Adjust amounts to taste. I didn’t measure when I made this, so these are approximations.

1 large tomato
1 mandarin orange
10 chopped basil leaves
1 T finely diced onion
1 T white wine vinegar
1/2 t kosher salt

Cut and de-seed the tomato, then dice. Peel the orange. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice off the pith (the white, thread-like stuff attached to the inside of the peel). Then dice, cutting between the sections. Combine the tomato and orange with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate for 20 minutes. You can whiz it in a food processor a bit if you don’t want it so chunky. Serve on grilled salmon or chicken. This would also taste good on bruschetta!

salsa

Posted in life in lincoln, recipes, what's cooking | No Comments »

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