New Year's Day 2015 and the Best Dinner Ever?

Since we spend out New Year's Eve with a very sick Jeremy, and barely made it to 10:30pm for celebrations, I decided to make a nice 'fancy dinner' for New Year's Day as a means for extra celebration. When you have 5 and 7 year old kids, 'fancy dinner' really means...we're setting the table, using nice plates and trying not to fart at the table or knock anything over. While we eat dinner at the table together several nights a week let's just say....we rarely ever use these perimeters.

I spent most of the whole day tearing down Christmas and organizing it with  my trusty label maker. While I was doing that our lamb roast was curing in a delicious smelling rub for many hours.

Our lamb roast with all kinds of goodies added to the dutch oven before cooking all afternoon....

....and after

While the family played Wii, I set the table including candles, napkin rings and chargers.

Jeremy said that this lamb dish was the best thing that I have EVER produced in this kitchen. Really? This kitchen that I have cooked in for almost 10 years? Like...ever ever? I'm not sure if that was the food talking or the fact that his bronchitis had kept him from eating a real meal for far too long.

Either way, I'll be making it again.

Yes we are all in pajamas and the kids have wet hair from an afternoon bath. Doesn't mean we weren't still being fancy. 

On my goal list for 2015....

...more fancy dinners.

A couple of people have asked for the recipe. It's from cookbook and I couldn't find it online. So just because I'm feeling nice...here it is typed out for you all!

Lamb, Prune and Almond Tagine

Ingredients:
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground turmeric
1tbsp paprika
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup olive oil
3 pounds lamb cutlets
1/3 cup clarified butter (I just used regular)
2 large onions, finely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
3.5 cups lamb stock (I just used beef)
2 1/3 cup prunes
4 cinnamon sticks
4 bay leaves
1/2 cup almond meal
12 shallots
1 tbsp honey
salt and ground black pepper
toasted almonds and fresh parsley to garnish. 

Steps:
1) Using a mortar and pestle or a blender, combine the coriander and cumin seeds, chili powder, paprika, turmeric, garlic and 1/4 cup of oil. Coat the lamb with the paste, then cover and chill for at least 5 hours.  

2) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large Dutch oven. Add the onions and carrot and cook until soft. Remove and put to one side. Cook the paste-coated lamb on both sides in the remaining butter. Add a little of the stock and bring to a boil, scraping up the sediment from the bottom of the pot. Put the onions and carrot back in the pot and add one-third of the prunes. Add the remaining stock with the cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and almond meal. Season, cover and bake in the oven for 2 hours or until the meat is really tender. 

3) Meanwhile, saute the shallots in the remaining oil and the honey until they turn a deep golden brown. Add to the pot 30-40 minutes before the end of the cooking time. 

4) Take the lamb out of the sauce and put to one side. Bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce tot a thick consistency. Put the lamb back in the casserole, add the remaining prunes, and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Garnish with the almonds and parsley. Serve with couscous. (I chose the Trader Joe's harvest grain blend instead because we loooove it).

Egg Carton Mini Muffins

Being home all day with nowhere to go...such a shock to my system nowadays. It wasn't all that long ago that I was home most days with my preschoolers or babies, and domesticity ruled my life. But now, such a rare treat. I am still continuing not to work (you know, by the Uncle Sam definition of 'work' not that every-Mom-knows-it's-a-real-job definition of 'work').

This year since the kids are now both in school, I'm finding myself busier than ever. Volunteering at school, running the kids to vision therapy, karate and dance classes, overseeing the coffee ministry and singing on the worship band at our church, hostessing a weekly small group, and attempting to get to regular exercise classes. Oh and packing cute lunch boxes.  Whew.

But today Charley had a cough, so I cleared my calendar and stayed home with him and did domestic things. Like finally washed our stinky comforter.

I also had a stroke of genius about mini-muffins and egg cartons, which led me to our little project.

First we painted some paper egg cartons to be all holiday pretty.

Then I made some mini muffins (don't ask for a recipe, it was just Jiffy mix with dried cherries added)

Then we put a dozen mini-muffins in each egg carton and will later delivery them to our neighbors. Ta-da!!!

*Disclaimer- my coughing kid did not touch any part of the food process and washed his hands well before painting the cartons. Plus he's not really that sick, so I feel confident in sharing these muffins. I'm not a horrible virus spreading neighbor...I don't think.

Scenes from Thanksgiving- 2013

Another great year at our house. We hosted for about 15 people in my family. The kids all had a great time, the husband went crazy in the kitchen, the men watched football, the dogs begged for scraps, and the food was great. When it was all said and done everyone settled in and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It simply isn't turkey day without it.

This year we are thankful for too many things to count. But today...for family. 

Varying Degrees of Lunch

We are lucky and unique in that we eat dinner together pretty much every night, and about 5 out of 7 nights it's bonafied home cooked. Please know that in my book, boxed food is still considered home cooked...not so true for my foodie husband.

When Jeremy is traveling then the kids and I eat together. Sometimes from a box, sometimes a little fancier and we light the candle and break out the glassware.

But lunch is kind of anyone's game.

Tessa's is almost always packed by me and featured on Facebook, because I'm that big of a Facebook dork. This was today's featured bento.The kid loves all kinds of food and is easy to please.

Charley comes home from preschool around 11:45 and needs lunch stat. About once a week that comes in the form of a happy meal or some Chick-Fila version of the same thing.

The kid loves nuggets with a burning passion. He would eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner but we try not to let that happen. We feed the obsession....only occasionally.

Lunch is where he is allowed to really explore kid food...something easy and fast like grilled cheese, ham and cheese with crackers, boxed mac and cheese or like today, hot dogs. In the evening we make him eat fish and vegetables just like everyone else, but lunch is kid time.

He really didn't want me to take his pic eating lunch, hence the sour puss.

Once he's eaten his lunch, I get him settled in for rest time on the couch which usually involves a movie. Sometimes he falls asleep and sometimes not, but we don't really force the napping like we did when he was younger. He comes home so tired from preschool, we usually vegetate until it's time to pick up Tessa at 3.

After Charley eats, then it's time for  my lunch...

This is my portion size since surgery and will be my maximum portion for life, about a cup. Today's featured leftover was chicken pot pie from last night's small group.

Since Jeremy is working at home when he's not travelling, he often pops out to grab a quick sandwich or will request a delivery from the kitchen. He usually doesn't have a lot of time to sit and chat or anything. Yesterday I caught him making himself a beautiful caprese salad with some of our homegrown tomatoes and basil.

So the four of us usually have something different from lunch (which is actually true for breakfast now that I think about it)....but you can always find us congregating and eating the same meal at dinner. The rule for dinner is eat what Mom makes or go hungry.  A little hard for picky-ish  Charley sometimes but we make it happen anyway. Life can't be all hot dogs and nuggets.

Tessa's Disgusting Chick Fila Commercial

Warning, hilarity and bad table manners ensue. But man, do we ever love Chick Fila.

Tessa's Badly Mannered Chick Fila Commercial from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

My Cookie Project- Chocolate Chip Surprise

Yes, I still bake cookies from time to time, just not as often as when I made it a whole household project and everything. Basically I was teaching myself to bake back then, while simultaneously sugaring up my kids. One batch of cookies per week or so. It worked really, because whipping up 3 dozen cookies for the school carnival is like no big deal to me now.

Immersion baking education, bad for the waistline.

I was going to do our awesome dark chocolate cookie, which are always a hit, but found out too late that I didn't have any cocoa powder. Crucial. Ooops.

I had the stuff for chocolate chip but wanted them to not be boring, so we added some of these chocolate candy things that come in a milk straw.

We had a few of these left from Christmas and the kids haven't used them much for their milk (note- they get clogged easily and make it difficult to enjoy). So we cut these puppies open and added them. Basically they are small chocolate sprinkles.

They added a nice little crunch to the finished project. I hope the people eating them realize that that's intentional and not a stray egg shell.

The other good thing about all that baking I did long ago is that the kids are pretty good at it and used to helping in the kitchen sometimes.

I give them a scoop and they roll it into nice shaped balls. 

See that peppery affect? That's those crunchy chocolate sprinkles. I need to think of what other fun unexpected things I can add to a chocolate chip cookie, cause they certainly are easy.

I mean, assuming we have the ingredients on hand, it's only like a 15-20 minute time investment. I guess I always thought baking was a lot harder than that. Sometimes it is.

Packaged up and ready for the winter carnival, 3 dozen cookies. No sweat.

Charley's 4th Birthday- The Cake

Mom took pictures yesterday of Charley's 4th Birthday party and then sent me about a million good pics to sort through. To make it easier, I'm going to break it down into several posts.

The Lionel train table that Jeremy built was pretty darn exciting, but I think Erin's cake tied for the award of awesome achievement this year. She really outdid herself with the coolness. I think she should go on cake boss...the non-fondant edition.

The night before these parties, Erin always comes over and we destroy the kitchen. She is creative genius and I'm in charge of setting her up, assisting her, washing dishes, and making drinks. Sometimes I make something cool like a tree or lump of coal. That's my wheelhouse.

Why no pictures of the cake making? Because we're usually pretty dang busy and have icing on our fingers. This year we were done at about 1:30am.

Since trains and railroads was the theme, we made an old fashioned locomotive. Everything on this puppy was edible except the popsicle sticks and paper signs. The grass was coconut, the gravel made out of white chocolate chips, the tracks out of kit kats and the trees out of upside down sugar cones. 

It was all delicious and the kids LOVED it.

Erin used loaf pans to make the train cars, and artfully carved the first one to be the engine. The smokestacks were iced rice krispy treats. And my favorite part was the smoke, made out of popcorn and wire by me at an hour way past midnight. 

The CBR stood for Charley Bennington Railroad, and the 444 was an obvious nod to his birthday. 

It was nearly too pretty to chop up and eat but we did. That's what cakes are for right? 

What I really should take a picture of sometime is how we always manage to cover these things with plastic wrap to keep them moist overnight. Let's just say that this year there were 8 tall wine glasses involved. 

There's the cake goddess herself, enjoying her celebrity status at our birthday parties. Funny, she only had ice cream and no cake. Too much of a good thing?