The kids singing

A few weeks ago, Scot, my dad, Ch., and I spoke in church. I translated my dad's talk for him, and he read it in Spanish. He did really well, especially for not speaking any Spanish! The kids sang a Primary song, and it turned out beautifully. Of course, when we practiced at home, they were goofing off and laying on the floor. But when the time came, they did great. Tonight before Family Home Evening, I tried to get them to do it again to blog it. I won't go into the details of how it all went very badly and I sent them to their rooms. :-(. But, in the end, they came down to sing. When they sang a few weeks ago it was definitely their best performance, but this will give you an idea.

Chipotle Dressing & Creamy Cucumber Vinaigrette

Here are two salad dressings that we really enjoy. Both are loosely based on other recipes. The first one is from a vegan cookbook and the second is based on a cooking class that Ch. attended at Snowbird. My favorite is the chipotle. Spice it to your liking. Make sure you have red bell peppers and avocado on your salad with the chipotle dressing. They're a perfect match. Both keep for over a week in the fridge. Buy the cheap clear mustard/ketchup plastic bottles from Walmart to keep your dressing in. For chipotles, I blend up the whole can, lay it out in a line on plastic wrap, and freeze. I then just cut off whatever I need.

Creamy Chipotle Dressing

1/3 c. cashews(buy in bulk, unsalted at Good Earth)
1/3 c. unsweetened coconut (buy in bulk at Good Earth)
½ c. water
1 T. honey
1 T. EVOO
¼ pkg. silken tofu (around ¼ pound)
2 t. drained capers
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. apple cider vinegar
½ chipotle pepper in adobo (1 t. blended chipotle/adobo)
1 T. red onion or 1 shallot (small)
½ t. sea salt
½ t. chili powder
¼ t. paprika
1 small garlic clove

1. Blend cashews, coconut, and water until very smooth.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend.




Creamy Cucumber Vinaigrette

1 cucumber
1/4 cup light mayo
14 c. plain non-fat yogurt
1 small shallot (about 1 T.) (or red onion)
1 ½ -2 T. white wine vinegar
1 T. oil
Salt and pepper
1/3 c. feta cheese

1. Peel and seed cucumber with a spoon.
2. In blender put cuke, vinegar, yogurt, shallot, and oil. Process
3. Once emulsified add mayo. Salt and pepper to taste.

660 Curries

Raita - a yogurt sauce with toasted cumin seeds, cucumbers, and carrots

Restaurant-style Cauliflower and Potatoes
Having curdled the whole milk, it's now draining. This truly was very easy!

OK, this post is just to show how nerdy and obsessed I am with food. I'm not posting a single recipe because I know one would try it! I read about the new cookbook 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer, so I checked it out of the library. It's fabulous! It's taught me so much about Indian cooking. We did 4 curries in one week. I think my dad was pretty burnt out on curries. I made some raisin/date/tamarind chutney, raita with cukes and carrots, homemade paneer cheese (as shown in pics), and 4 different curries. Whenever you say Indian food to people, most say "I love curry, or I hate the flavor of curry." The truth is (and this is pointed out in the book) the spice curry is a mixture of spices and most Indian dishes don't even call for it. A curry means a sauce. So you could make a curry out of most any spice.

We also did basmati rice with every meal. It's pretty economical from Costco, and so easy to do in the rice cooker. Why did I wait so many years to get a rice cooker????? I'll never go back to cooking rice on the stove. If you get daring and love Indian food, I highly recommend checking this out of the library.

Zucchini-Orange Bread

\The zucchini has arrived in our garden! Zucchini casserole, zucchini pancakes, zucchini chocolate cake, zucchini cake with caramel topping, etc. But the following recipe is one that I've now made twice, and we all really liked it. It's a very dense bread and the first batch didn't make a very tall loaf. Reviewers on the CL site said the same. So I doubled the recipe along with all my other changes. As always, if you'd like the original , go to Cookinglight.com. As an FYI, if you're interested into baking with more whole grains, you have to check out the KING ARTHUR WHOLE GRAIN BAKING cookbook. It is an amazing resource! One tip I picked up was to stir up my wheat flour before scooping in order to incorporate some air into it. Then scoop lightly into your measuring cup. After you do that a few times, you realize how packed down your flour can be.

ZUCCHINI-ORANGE BREAD
(adapted from Cooking Light)

Makes 2 8" x4" loaves and 1 mini-loaf


Ingredients
5 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour (I just grind my own)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup egg substitute (or 3 eggs)
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 c. plain, nonfat yogurt (I put in 1/3 c. oil and fill to 3/4 c. with yogurt)
2 tablespoons grated orange rind (get a Microplane!)
2 tablespoon fresh orange juice
4 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted in the oven (I like them quite dark)
Cooking spray

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare bread, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flours and next 3 ingredients (through baking soda) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk; make a well in center of mixture. Combine granulated sugar and ingredients through juice). Add sugar mixture to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Fold in zucchini and walnuts. Divide batter between 2 (8 x 4–inch) loaf pans and one mini-loaf coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on a wire rack; remove from pans.
3. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons juice, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over warm loaves. Cool completely on wire rack.

M.'s Birthday Party

Yes, if you know when her birthday is, it was in January. But the pictures are so cute I thought I'd blog them. Her birthday was an EXTREMELY last minute thing as January was a pretty bad month around here. I did a princess party. The girls came in their regular clothes, then I made them clean, like Cinderella. They loved this and all cleaned and giggled continuously, as I yelled, "Faster, This isn't clean enough!" Then there was a knock at the door and a messenger from the king brought news of a ball. They all knew what to do! They ran upstairs to put on their dresses. One by one they walked down the stairs as the "messenger" called, "Princess S. from Lehi" most of them took this in all seriousness which was absolutely adorable. Then, Ch. and C. , also dressed up, took them to the waiting room. Scot was at the house to help, but , of course, he was on call, had to work, and couldn't do much. So the boys helped me out. Ch. did the makeup station, and C. did their nails. Grandpa John made and cut out heart-shaped sandwiches. I made the cake and was VERY proud of myself! Of course, the "BIG" princess really enjoyed getting dressed up! That's the dress I wore for the 8th grade band banquet (FYI --in the pic I put a tank top on underneath). I'll have to try to find an old picture to scan. 8th grade was a bad year - bad hair, glasses, braces, ugh!!!

The princess dress that M. has on is a dress my mom bought in Nov. for her birthday in Jan. It was pretty special to have that to give her.

The Boys' Backpacking Trip

A couple of months ago, Scot went backpacking with the boys. Dan (Angie's husband) and Angie's dad invited them. Of course, Scot wasn't very excited because as we all know having a condo has warped his sense of "camping." He now says "camping" is going on a hike at Snowbird and coming back to look at the mountains while you sit in the hot tub! Anyway, I thought this would be a cheap activity for them to do together, wrong! A $100 later, they're ready for their trip. As he left, Scot said he thought he might actually have fun. I've been waiting 2 months for him to blog this, but I'm giving up. --The highlight of their trip was that after fishing for hours and catching next to nothing, a small stream was found where the fish were just sitting in the water.
They ran around and GRABBED the fish by hand and whacked them with rocks to kill them. Boys!??? At the end of it all, they all had a great time (including Scot), exercised a lot :-), and are all excited to do it again next year!