Abby, Zoë and Enzo

We ended up being in the kitchen for most of the day today.  Before lunch time I got in the kitchen and pulled all the meat from the whole chicken we bought at Hiper the night before and then began boiling the bones and making a stock.  As that was going on I cubed up some potatoes I'd boiled and heated them with some chicken for lunch.  We also had the prepared chickpea salad with some salad dressing to flavor it.

Later on Chris came into the kitchen to strain and pick the carcass completely, adding the bits of chicken to the broth.  We sauteéd some garlic and onion and then the rice.  Once that had cooked some, we added back the chicken stock, some cumin, oregano and a chicken bullion cube.  We make about 3 uncooked cups of rice at a time, this will only last 2 to 3 meals at the most.  Chris doesn't like eating left over rice or pasta much, so we make sure it goes quickly.  Making the rice like this, produces an almost risotto like rice, almost creamy and most certainly delicious.

I was getting ready to make the girls eggs and toast for breakfast, when Chris suggested that I make them eggs with a hat.  We haven't done this before, so Chris explained to me what he meant and I attempted it.  I'd heard this done before, but not with this name.  I toasted the bread slices in the pan (no toaster) and then cut a good sized circle out of them, put them back in the pan (one at a time of course, as it's a very small pan) and cracked the egg in the hole.  The idea is to have a finished product where the circle you've cut out of he bread acts as the 'hat' for the yolk of the egg that has been cooked into the bread slice.  Then you can take the hat and dip it into the center of the (hopefully) dippy yolk.  Even though the finished product of my first attempts at this didn't come out exactly as I'd pictured, the girls were still thrilled with the fun breakfast, even Abby, who usually requests her yolk cooked all the way.

Zoë was very upset that she wasn't able to help with anything at dinner time, since it was Abby's night to help with dinner alone.  However, after dinner (salad) I remembered that Chris had saved a recipe for me that he'd come across online.  So, off to the kitchen Zoë and I went to try them out.  'Mrs. B' whose website this was found on, says that she adds a good deal less sugar, and sometimes substitues some of the butter with other things.  We liked the taste of them, Chris didn't like the texture of the oats though.  Next time I'll add probably just a little over a cup of sugar and tinker with the other stuff... maybe using applesauce for some of the butter or something.

2 cup sugar
1/2c milk
1/2c cocoa
one stick of butter
1/2c Peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups of oats


Put the first four ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil add the pb and vanilla, let boil one minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the oats. Spoon onto a cookie sheet adn let cool (or eat hot out of bowl if you are impatient like me )

The girls and I licked the spoons, then we let the others cool.  Before dropping the mix onto parchment paper to cool, I let is set in the pan a few minutes.  By the time they were cool enough for the girls to have for snack, they did hold together but were still pretty gooey.  Later in the evening, when I was packaging them up, I noted that they did indeed set much more to handle like an actual cookie.

Abby and Zoë are ravinous pesto eaters.  They prefer pesto to "red" tomato sauce on their pasta.  Marge, their nutritionist, gave us a great tip about finding good quality and inexpense basil.  So after Yoga today, we went to "Golden Harvest".  The girls were excited about finding a bunch of basil for $2.50.  We should have taken a photo of it, it was a good size, but the girls dug in and started pulling the leaves off.  They helped with every step of the process.  This was their first batch of pesto, and we can't wait to try it on pasta tomorrow with Grandma Cindy.  We used raw cashews instead of pine nuts, and we didn't have good cheese, so we used the sprinkle parmesan kind.  Oh well, it turned out great just the same.  We made 430 grams in this batch for a cost of $2.50 in basil.  I am not sure what the small amount of extra virgin olive oil, raw cashews [which are expensive], garlic and cheese cost, but I am sure the total cost is less than the $0.022 per gram for the pesto we buy at the supermarket when we want to treat ourselves to the american version of the good stuff.  Using those per gram values, todays batch would have cost us almost $10 at the supermarket.

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion*, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 cup vegetable broth
1(32 oz.)* can crushed tomatoes
1(14 oz.)* can black beans
1(14 oz.) *can red kidney beans
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 Tablespoons* chili powder
Several drops of cayenne hot sauce
1 teaspoon course salt
1 cup refried beans
For Toppings:
green onions
diced tomatoes
tortilla chips

Over medium heat, add oil to a large pot and sautée onion, peppers, and garlic for 3 to 5 minutes.  Deglaze pot with the broth, add tomatoes, black beans, and kidney beans, stir to combine.  Season with cumin, chili powder, hot sauce, and salt.  Thicken by stirring in the refried beans.  Simmer over low heat for about 5 to 10 minutes.  Serve in bowls, top with toppings and serve with chips.

* Here's how my ingredients/amounts differed from the recipe: I used half of a large sweet onion, a 28oz. can of tomatoes (seasoned with oregano and other seasonings), a 15.5 oz. can of black beans, a 19 oz. can of kidney beans, and 1 tablespoon of the chili powder.  Most of the changes were because of what I had on hand, others due to taste preference.  I also added some things: I used our Italian seasons grinder and the garlic /sea salt grinder to add some extra flavor, and I also added avocado to the toppings along with a small amount of shredded cheddar cheese.

This meal turned out really yummy, especially with the toppings.  It made the perfect amount for all four of us to have plenty for dinner, as well as enough left over for the four of us to have the same amount we had tonight, for tomorrow's lunch.  It was also easy and quick, especially for a chili.

Abby really wanted pancakes this morning, I looked online to find a good recipe, and came upon this one, taken from an old family cook book of whomever the poster on the website was.  She made them with me while Zoë and Daddy were still sleeping.  (Zoë was up in the wee hours again)  There were a couple of comments on the website from people who had tried the recipe and modified it a little.  Everyone said that the batter made super good pancakes, so we gave it a try, following some tips from the first commenter.  Here's how the recipe went on the site:

1¹/₂ cups all-purpose flour

3¹/₂ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt (I used ³/₄ of a teaspoon, per recommendations)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1¹/₄ cups milk (warmed so as not to coagulate the melted butter when added to it - I ended up needing ¹/₄ cup more warm milk, as did most others who commented)

1 egg (tip said to let it get to room temperature)

3 Tablespoons melted butter

I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla (another tip)

It said to mix the dry ingredients, then make a well and put the wet ingredients into it and mix.  From the tips, Abby and I mixed the dry, then the wet in a separate bowl, then made the well in the flour mixture and added the wet to it.  We used a whisk to combine.  The commenter with all of the tips also said that she let her mix sit for 10 minutes, but we just let is sit while we got the pan ready.  I lightly greased the pan and warmed it over medium high heat, then adding the batter in ¹/₄ cup fulls.  We did the first pancake to taste, perfect and fluffy, nice with syrup.  Then Abby thought adding chocolate chips to the batter would be good, so I sprinkled some in.  Next time I think we'll do blueberries, although the chocolate chips were melty and delicious!  This made about 8 regular sized pancakes (with the ¹/₄ cup of batter) and another larger one at the end.  When Zoë woke up, she enjoyed her pancakes with cool whip, which Abby had already tried, and Abby tried one with peanut butter.  Very yummy smelling.  We had a few left over and so I froze them in a plastic baggy once they were cooled.  I plan to make another batch of these soon, enough to freeze a bunch to have on hand.