Out With The Old...

We have wanted to remodel and update our kitchen for some time now, and that process has just begun!  Daddy, Kyle, Davis, Luke, a friend, and I (Clara) spent one day tearing out most of the old kitchen cupboards and the drywall from a couple walls. The difference in the kitchen from that morning to the evening was huge! 

As you can see in this picture, the cabinets are all gone on the left, and we moved the oven and refrigerator into the dining room.

Cleaning was an endless job! :)

Davis scraping the ceiling. 

Our excellent contractor made the work fun and much more speedy.

Daddy put up a temporary structure while we worked on the load-bearing wall.

We cut out this window and installed French doors. 

 

This is what's left of our kitchen for now. 

Pumpkin Recipes!

Pumpkins are certainly one of the symbols of the autumn season.  This year we were blessed to receive many “slightly” rotten pie pumpkins from a local corn maze.  Our house has recently smelled of baking pumpkins, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin soup, pumpkin butter, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin oatmeal.  Delicious!
We were asked to post a few of our recipes, so here are two delicious ones we have enjoyed this season.

Pumpkin Bisque

1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced bacon or turkey lunchmeat
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
peel of 1 lemon, finely grated
1/3 cup half and half or plain yogurt
~Melt butter in a medium pan.  Add onion and bacon and saute until bacon is lightly browned.  Add white wine and cook until reduced, 4 to 5 minutes.  Add chicken broth and pumpkin puree.  Stir in thyme and grated lemon.  Add half and half and simmer 5 minutes.  Do not allow to boil.  My mom made this recipe (tripled) in the crockpot which worked great.  Very delicious with chunks of cheese in it:)

Pumpkin, Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
2 1/3 cups oats
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup yogurt or applesauce (if flaxseed is available, I use about 1/2 cup of it and cut the yogurt or applesauce down to 3/4 cup)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar (I usually use honey)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chocolate chips
~Combine all the dry ingredients.  Cream yogurt or applesauce and all sugars.  Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla and mix well.  Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Chill dough for 30 minutes.  Form dough into golf ball size scoops and bake on an ungreased pan at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes.

Enjoy!

Stay tuned for one more post about the best part of our trip.

Vegetable leather

For Christmas, Daddy got us a nice BIG dehydrator which has been so much fun.  I (Emilee) have been doing a lot of experimenting with different leathers.
Here are some ideas and instructions for making vegetable leather.  The finished product tasted like a condensed vegetable soup.  You could probably use these to make a broth or just eat it as it is.  By the way, I did not take exact measurements, so have fun experimenting on your own and modifying if you so desire.

First of all, chop one onion.

Sauté the onion in a little olive oil.

Next, finely chop some squash (I probably used one or two) and add to the sautéed onions.

Puree one or two tomatoes and add to the vegetable mixture.

Finely great a few carrots.

Mix the vegetables and allow them to sauté until tender.

After the vegetables were tender, I added a tablespoon or two of some Italian seasoning consisting of garlic, basil, rosemary, and sea salt.  Feel free to taste your vegetables to determine if you need more seasoning.  Just keep in mind, the flavor will be condensed in the leather.

Fill the blender a third or half way full of spinach…

…then spoon in your vegetables until the blender is about three-fourths full.

Add a little water, just enough to allow the food to blend.

Give it a spin until all the chunks are gone.

If you have a dehydrator, lay your paraflex or thick zip-lock bags cut to lay flat on your trays.  If you don’t have a dehydrator but your oven can go down to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, take a cookie sheet and lay your bag on it.

Next, spread your vegetable mixture on the trays, about an eighth to a quarter inch think in the middle and a quarter inch thick around the edges. 

Place you trays in the dehydrator or oven and turn it on to 135 degrees Fahrenheit for 4-6 hours or until completely dry.

When the leather is done, carefully remove it from the paraflex or bags.

Role the leather up beginning rather tightly.  Mine cracked a little at the beginning but it finished nicely.

Cut the leather as long as desired…

…and seal completely with plastic wrap!

That’s all there is to it!!  These are a healthy quick snack that are easy to take along.  Give it a try and let me know how it works!