Days going by..

Feb 26: Yes, Tobin finds anything to put on his head, including Tiaras and whatever else. This was a noisy morning.

March 2: Reading book 4 of the Little House series. We finished that and started book 5, where Mary goes blind, and their old dog, Jack, dies. Sophia really cried. I almost did too, in every book.

March 7: kids playing outside on their cars.

March 7: Learning about Giotto the artist and egg tempera painting! 

CC week 13!

March 8: Eating their snack on the front steps...

March 11: YangYang, our neighbor was playing with her red sash that is a part of her school uniform. Sophia then picked it up and did various things with it. This is what walked in the door:

 I took her outside for better photo lighting, our little red riding hood.

Tobin wanted a piece of the photo action. He is a BIG ham!

Then Soph and YangYang. 'Victory'!

Tobin totally mimicked Sophia and it was hilarious as you can tell, this boy. 

 And Bella had to follow suit.

March 13: cooking over the fire: They created this contraption all by themselves, their belt, pot from their kitchen, sticks, etc.

 They set up 'house' everywhere and anywhere, just like on 'Little House' or 'The Boxcar Children'

Recipe: Baked Chicken Chimichangas

David loves Chimichangas, of the shredded beef variety (back to Monterys restaurant). But these are just hard here because the beef is so blaaahhh! I have done it before and I think I used ground beef. But to avoid all the deep frying I tried this recipe and we loved it. I pound my chicken good to get it tender, chop it, then I stir fry it a little until cooked, instead of boiling/shredding, etc. I made double batch and took some to our friends who just had a baby (a Dutch family, so also foreigners here), they loved it and immediately asked for the recipe. As a side we added homemade refried beans (but not really refried, just cooked and mashed!), with the chopped lettuce and tomato, just like you get at a Mexican restaurant. It was yummy yum.

Baked Chicken Chimichangas: from HERE!

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
• 1 cup of your favorite salsa(see earlier post)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed

• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I actually used Gouda because it was what I had)
• 2 green onions, chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 6 (8 inch) flour tortillas (I had brought some back from Thailand but usually need to make)

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

• diced tomato, sour cream (I used plain yogurt), guacamole (didn't have), salsa, and shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Mix chicken, salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions. Place about 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.

3. Fold opposite sides over filling. Roll up from bottom and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.

4. Brush with melted butter. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

5. Garnish with desired toppings and serve with salsa on the side.

Recipe: Creamy Balsamic Vinegar Dressing.

Creamy Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Serving size: 1 tablespoon

Servings: 16

Ingredients:

½ cup extra virgin olive oil (I used Coconut Oil, which did become a solid when put in the fridge. It needs to be warmed up to stay a liquid. OR if you add a little olive oil to the mixture it should stay a liquid at room temperature. I did not have olive oil, and am trying to use more coconut oil anyway)

¼ cup balsamic vinegar

1 clove garlic, grated or finely minced

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup (I used Agave nectar with a little maple flavoring in it, which is what we use for our maple syrup over pancakes, etc.)

¼ teaspoon kosher salt (I used sea salt)

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt (I used regular, Chinese brand yogurt).

Original Recipe found here.

This turned out to be a delicious new dressing that I will make again!

Recipe: Finally good home-made salsa

We have been making Salsa here for 8 years.
It always turns out pretty good. Just not fabulous like we would like.
We have eaten some great Mexican meals.
For awhile we stuck with the 'Better homes and gardens' chunky salsa recipe. We always still hoped for something more. And, after various research and finding 'Chili's salsa copy cat recipes' etc. I finally tweaked a recipe that we love!

After our last trip to the U.S. we knew I needed another go at good salsa (David is pretty picky and he wouldn't mind me saying). You have to be picky when you eat at 'Monterys' in Btown every 10 days or so for 2 months. That is a lot of GREAT salsa. No worker in the restaurant has English as his first language. It is a real Mexican restaurant and we love it. Finally, one of our last times in there (and recognized by the staff), the waiters started talking to/about our kids. I had taken one child out into the mall area, and I watched David and Poppy chat it up with the staff. Poppy told them that we live overseas and that we want to make their salsa! The waiter gladly went back to the chef...and got some tidbits. And like all good recipes, there were no measurements!!! Ugh. But the key ingredient, I think, and what I have found everywhere, is fried jalapenos! Awesome. Except we can't get them. But still I tried a few different things and here is what I came up with. I made this last week, with baked chicken chimichangas, and David said: 'You have done it!' I was so pleased to please my man (picky as he is about his salsa).
Experiment with this all you like, and enjoy! See the 'Mock Jalapeno' recipe below this one.

Restaurant Style Salsa

4 cups + chopped tomatoes

About 1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup green pepper, chopped

3 TBS Lemon juice

2 TBS cilantro, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt (or more)

1 can tomato paste

1/2 cup mock jalapenos.

2 TBS oil

Stir together all ingredients except tomato paste and jalapenos. Stir fry the mock jalapenos (or real ones) in the oil until a little caramelized and crunchy. Put a little over half the main mixture (3/4 maybe depending on how chunky you like it) into blender with the tomato paste and fried jalapenos and puree. Mix back together, chill and serve. This makes a lot, you can cut it in half and make 1/2 less spicy. Note to those in Asia: Wash everything really well since this is uncooked salsa!

Chinese Mock Jalapenos

1. Choose peppers: short smaller wrinkled green hot pepper. Wash 6-8 (or more depending on the pepper and size) wash and take stems off and slice across just  like you get when you buy jalapenos in a jar (wholeround pieces leaving the seeds in place). I actually use the thin, longer, green peppers which are spicy but not too hot, and I chop about 10-12 of them at least. Any smaller somewhat spicy pepper should work.

2. Put in a wide bottom bowl then pour the liquid (recipe below) over them and let them sit until cooled, then  put them in a glass jar and refrigerate 

3. Liquid recipe:  bring to a boil 1 ½ cups of white vinegar and 1/3 cup of sugar and ½ tsp of salt.  Boil until sugar is dissolved and while still hot pour over the peppers.  I have a lot of peppers crowded in this liquid and they still always turn out well. Stores in frig up to a month.

4.   I always make these spicy. To add spice, I buy the small very hot peppers (xiao mila), I usually use 3-4 and slice them as well. You could adjust the spice by just cutting in half and not really letting all the seeds and juice out. But we let it all out by chopping them. Add more or less depending on how much kick you want. The result is a sweet, but spicy pepper that we use on lots of things, not just Mexican food. 

Upcoming posts

Here is what I hope to blog soon:

1. Recipe: finally good restaurant style salsa! including mock jalapeno recipe
2. Recipe: great salad dressing, creamy balsamic
3. Recipe: baked chicken chimichangas

4. Homeschooling schedule, day in the life
5. links and love about CC: classical conversations

6. more pics of what you really want: the kiddos!

Recipe: Pizza Sauce

I have tweaked this recipe (originating from about 3 recipes from various sources that I had jotted down over the years) and finally got it right where I like it. And David LOVES it, as do the kids. Sophia says it was better than 'The Pizza Company' but her memory is fuzzy, that was some gooood pizza (better than Papa John's in my book). I was mainly adjusting spices and sugar quantities. I am posting the large quantity that I make and freeze, divide by whatever size portion you want. This one batch gets me 5 servings, but for most people it would be more. We like a lot of sauce on our pizza.

10 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped

3 TBS oil

3 kg of tomatoes, or about 6 lbs

2 cans tomato paste (small)

1 can  water (from Tom paste can)

5 TBS sugar

4 tsp Basil

1.5 tsp oregano

1.5 tsp thyme

1 tsp salt

Peel and chop tomatoes (boil to peel easy). Use blender to puree most of tomatoes, leaving a 1-2 cups chopped In large saucepan, sauté garlic in oil until tender (don't burn!) Stir in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until sauce thickens This makes 9 cups, which I split into 5 bags of almost 2 cups each, not quite. We always make two pizzas at a time, that is almost 1 cup of sauce per pizza, a little less.

Feeding Frenzy, some changes

David thought I went a little crazy the last two weeks. I was literally in the kitchen all week making double meals for various families returning here after time away. Yes, I have a helper, and she was right there with me chopping away too.

But it was all part of my plan, really. Sophia's first semester of 'real' homeschool (last fall), I did not menu plan at all. We had a flow of things, I held to oldie but goodie recipes, we did basic grilled chicken on the foreman, and our helper cooked a lot for us. Now that I am settled into CC (Classical Conversations), I returned from Thailand with a renewed vigor to vary our meals, explore, get into a better rhythm and go back to eating healthier. Already we are sticking to Green smoothies for lunch, and nuts and dried fruits or fresh fruit for snacks. For the kids my main goal is to get them eating more fruit, and less sweets in wrappers. For this I told them: you can buy candy from the 'school store' on Saturday only, and we will make one dessert a week from scratch. Plus, they will help me choose and make the dessert!

And while the last two weeks just happened to be crazy in the kitchen, I did discover some great new recipes, and tweaked a few that I really want to share. Here is what I hope our skeleton menu plan will look like in some form or fashion, I am posting this for accountability. Also this is dinner only, we do light lunches, cucumber, carrots, sandwiches or noodles, and always green smoothies:

Monday: Grill out, grilled veg
Tues: Dumpling night
Weds: international night: (try new things, yaki soba, butter chicken (Indian), lebanese, mexican)
Thurs: date night, kids eat huifan, curry pork with vegetables over rice (they LOVE it)
Fri: Chinese, Ayi cooks great Chinese, always lots of stir-fried veg
Sat: pizza night, invite friends