How to Garden with two Small Children

The best 8 bucks I ever spent!

A Little Bit Of This, A little Bit Of That

I'm still runny at a frenetic pace, but I've managed a few joyful moments, yup that's right the picture below says it all ... a little bit of romance the roses are from Al the Man, a little bit of nature my little friend Chipie is alive and well we thought she was a he and that he was dead but she's happy and alive and is very curious as to why I was stuffing food down her burrow. I'm sure her little kits are loving the peanut butter.

I took my best friend to her favourite dog park in the world and managed to take a photo of an incredible Blue Heron, which I called Herring and Al the Man thought this was hilarious and reminded of it many times. All in all a great weekend.

The Ultimate Oatmeal Cookie

I have been so busy this past little while - still decluttering and cooking up a storm. I just wanted to stop by and post this amazing cookie recipe. I have been looking for the perfect oatmeal cookie and I have finally found it! I like oatmeal cookies that are soft and a bit chewy, not hard and crumbly or doughy or cakey. This one is perfect and the secret to this recipe is not to over bake the cookies.

1-1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1-1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped *
1 cup dried cranberries **
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks about size of chocolate chips (about 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar, preferably dark
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Adjust oven racks to upper - and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18-by-12 inch) baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In second medium bowl, stir together oats, pecans, cranberries, and chocolate.

In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until no sugar lumps remain, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl; add egg and vanilla and beat on medium-low speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl; with mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture, and mix until combined. With mixer still running on low, gradually add oat/nut mixture, and mix until just incorporated. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.

Divide dough evenly into 16 portions, each about 1/4 cup, then roll between palms into balls about 2 inches in diameter, stagger 8 balls on each baking sheet, spacing them about 2-1/2 inches apart. Using hands, gently press each dough ball to 1 inch thickness. Bake both baking sheets 12 minutes, rotate them front to back and top to bottom, and continue to bake until cookies are medium brown and edges have begun to set but centres are still soft (cookies will seem underdone and will appear raw, wet and shiny in cracks), 8 to 10 minutes longer. Do not over bake.

Cool cookies on baking sheets on wire rack 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Recipe - Summer Entertaining from Cook's Illustrated

* I did not use nuts so that Matt could take them to school
** The recipe called for dried sour cherries

Note: I found the baking instructions confusing, I wasn't sure if I should bake them for 12 minutes and then for an additional 8 to 10 minutes longer - this would have been way too long. I set the timer for 5 mins. rotated the sheets top to bottom and back to front and then set the timer for another 5 mins. After baking for 10 mins, the cookies looked mostly done but I felt they needed another 3 mins. When I removed them from the baking sheet they were soft in the middle and were fragile. I also made the cookies a bit smaller than suggested (about 1-1/2 tablespoon), another reason for keeping an eye on the time. These cookies were absolutely amazing, I really liked the bittersweet chocolate combined with the sour cranberries and sweet buttery flavour. I will continue to play around with the baking time, next time I will bake for the first 10 mins. and then an additional 2 mins. rather than 3 mins.

Next time I will double this recipe and roll half of the mixture into cylinder shapes, wrap with wax paper and tinfoil then freeze.

Try these, they're truly amazing.

Life is Sweet

I've been absent this past week, working away hard on decluttering my house. I started with a schedule, certain that I could have the upstairs and main floor done in a week. Well I'm almost there, the top floor of the house is complete, three bedrooms and two bathrooms decluttered! What a great feeling when I walk upstairs and look around, everything in it's place and a place for everything. Yesterday I started on the kitchen, I love that my kitchen is square (with three sides) however, the man that designed this kitchen put in dead corners instead of corner cabinets. Everything gets pushed into the corners and it's impossible to see what is in the cupboard. I threw away three bags of garbage yesterday, shameful. Recently we have put ourselves on a cash budget and it's forcing me to buy only what we need, hopefully this will help keep the kitchen decluttered and keep us from wasting food.

This morning Matt wanted an English muffin with honey, while he was eating, I thought that this might be a good time to clean out the toaster before I put it back in the cupboard. Usually I forget and the bottom will open on it's own (always when I'm in a hurry or bad mood) and crumbs fall all over the counter and floor. So today I opened the toaster over the sink and gave it a shake, nothing happened, all the crumbs stayed inside the toaster, perplexed I looked a little closer, the crumbs seem to glisten. Strange. Upon further investigation it was noted that someone poured honey into the toaster, someone was probably just trying to be helpful, you know help Mummy out a little because we know how upset she gets when crumbs fall all over the counter, or maybe it was a science experiment, what will happen if we pour honey into the toaster? Anyway it prompted a discussion on fire and why it is not a good idea to mix liquids and electricity and what would happen if our house caught on fire. Life is sweet, indeed.

How Does This Happen?

Seriously ...