a snowy day project: simple homemade ornaments

Around here, we like to keep Christmas cozy, simple, foraged and homemade. Most of our decorations are things we make (dried citrus, foraged wreaths, garland). One of my favorite little crafts, especially now that I have a little helper, are these cinnamon ornaments. This year we had one of Calvin's little friends over, along with his mama and together we mixed and rolled and cut and and dried these ornaments. By the end, there was cinnamon sprinkled all over the kitchen (including the boys' faces), and our home smelled glorious. 

The thing I really love about these ornaments is that they are made of cinnamon, applesauce and cloves. Most recipes for cinnamon ornaments out there have some sort of glue in them. With two-year-olds helping, it's nice to have something absolutely edible. I'm not encouraging them to eat it by any means (SO MUCH CINNAMON), but I can rest assured that if they do, it wouldn't bother me as glue would.  

We hung these on the tree (they are some of the few ornaments within Calvin's reach) and have adorned many of our Christmas gifts with them. 

My favorite cut-out shapes were the stars and trees! Although little gingerbread people would be awfully cute. 

Recipe: 

2 cups applesauce

about 3 cups cinnamon (go buy the big cheap containers at Aldi!)

1/8 cups ground cloves

Mix together the applesauce, cinnamon and cloves. Dust the countertop with cinnamon and roll out the dough about 1/4 in. thick. Cut out ornaments and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Use a skewer to poke holes in them. Bake at 200 degrees F for around 2 hours, until very hard. Tie strings through holes and decorate! 

These are not for eating, just decorating. 

Enjoy this little snowy day project! 

recipe | a simple and filling weekend breakfast

Weekend breakfast has become a bit of a special tradition in our home. Typically, I am up early with the baby, Calvin close behind. Sometimes we sneak downstairs and begin making breakfast while their daddy sleeps and other times the whole family is involved. One of us whipping up pancakes and eggs while our toddler is perched on the counter "helping", while the other juggles a baby and grabs ingredients. 

Our go-to is usually a whole wheat pancake recipe that includes oats and minimal sugar. But lately, I've mindlessly grabbed a pound of breakfast sausage here and there to keep on hand for our weekend breakfast. I was glancing through the pantry and came up with this recipe. 

This is a chop-chop, throw in the oven, sizzle-in-a-pan sort of recipe. It really comes together pretty quickly and is best served hot. I like to add heaping amounts of chopped up fresh sage both part way through cooking and at the very end for an extra kick because I love the flavor. The sweet potatoes add the perfect texture of softness and touch of flavor along with the onions. I put them in early so they'll caramelize. Toward the end of sizzling sausage, I actually like to take it out of the pan and soak up the grease, rinse the pan and wipe it down and then continue cooking. That may seem like a lot of work, but I prefer less greasy texture in this dish and that's how I accomplish it. Just before taking the sausage mixture off of the stove, I throw in extra sage and drizzle with maple syrup. I like to heap spoonfuls into a bowl and top with a fried or poached egg. 

Take this recipe and do with it what suits your taste. Maybe a different herb or roasted butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes. Perhaps you like your onions crunchy instead of caramelized. That's the beauty of a breakfast like this. You get to use creativity and taste for a cozy morning meal.

Ingredients: 

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

Olive oil for drizzling 

1 lb. breakfast sausage

1 large onion, thinly sliced 

1 handfull fresh sage

1 T. maple syrup (more or less to taste)

4 eggs, cooked however you prefer (really, any way is great. My favorite is poached or fried.)

Preheat oven to 400 F

Spread sweet potatoes on foil-lined baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a fork easily pierces the cubes. 

Cook the breakfast sausage in a deep skillet on medium-high. After about 5 minutes, add the onions. Let them sizzle together until sausage is almost finished. I like mine very brown and onions very caramelized. 

If you'd like, take this time to drain off the grease and wipe down the pan. Return sausage and onions to the pan and turn back to medium-high heat. Toss in most of your fresh sage and drizzle in maple syrup.

Throw a couple of eggs on another skillet and cook to your preference. 

Mix sweet potatoes into sausage mixture, add the rest of the sage and pile high into bowls. 

Top with egg, seasoned with salt and pepper. 

recipe | our favorite (and most healthy) banana muffin recipe

Bananas are something my family always has around. Always. Adam grabs one in the morning for breakfast, Calvin snacks on them throughout the day, not to mention we love to make things like smoothies and magical ice cream with them!

Inevitably, they sometimes get a little old. Nice and brown, wrinkly. I personally have a narrow banana-eating window. Just after the green is gone but before another day has passed. I am teased about this in my house, but I seriously can't stand a mushy banana. Ew. The texture is already weird enough...and then they get all mushy and stringy? Nope. Can't handle it.

BUT. I am a big fan of banana bread. Or, in this case, muffins. I used to only make banana bread (I love the nice crust it gets, and the way bread looks and slicing it...I'm a bread person). But since having a toddler (who loves hand-held food), and a husband (who likes to throw random things in his lunch box), I lately prefer muffins. Less crumbs from slicing, easy to throw in a diaper bag (inside another container, of course. Nobody wants muffins mixing with the diapers!), muffins are the answer to everything.

However, we are those parents that don't really give our kiddo sugar. It isn't that he's never tried something with sugar, it's more that we try to keep it out of his diet as much as possible. So for a few months now, as bananas get old, I have been tweaking this recipe.



I'm finally satisfied with it. This recipe uses honey instead of sugar, and depending on your taste, is very flexible. It is forgiving if you'd like to toss in a handful of flax seeds or chia seeds. It has some protein with that plain greek yogurt, and uses coconut oil as the fat. Also, oats. Oats just give bread of any kind that lovely, hearty texture that I love.

All that said, these still taste nice and sweet. I kid you not when I tell you all 16ish (yes, they are a weird not-even-dozen-amount because of my tweaking) are gone within a week. Or less. We LOVE them!

I think the key is waiting until your bananas are almost-dead-ripe. That's when they're the sweetest. Then, you can use less honey (or use all of it! They will be delightful), and they are sweet and full of flavor.

These muffins make a great little breakfast or midday snack. You can also freeze them after you've baked and let the muffins cool and pull them out a couple months later for breakfast or surprise guests. If you ask my husband, he'd recommend slathering peanut butter on them between bites. To each his own.




Recipe:

3 ripe bananas
2/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4-1/2 cup honey (depending on your taste and the sweetness of the bananas)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt


*optional: 1/4 cup chia seeds or 1/4 cup flax seeds

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
Mix bananas, coconut oil, yogurt, eggs, vanilla and honey in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. If you prefer, mash bananas with a fork and then mix with a spoon.
In a seperate bowl, mix dry ingredients.
Add dry ingredients all at once.
Mix until incorporated.
Scoop into greased or lined muffin tin until each cup is 3/4 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on top and when inserted, a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!

A note: I think the honey makes a difference. My favorite is raw honey that I buy locally. I like the strong flavor it provides to the muffins.

photos | sam hoops

I recently had the privilege of taking a few photos of a sweet friend of mine. She discovered a love for hula hooping. Remember, that thing we did at recess in elementary school? Same thing! Except...so much more graceful and artistic than when we were sweaty kids swinging our hips on the playground. Sam has turned hooping into a beautiful art form where she dances while manipulating that hula hoop effortlessly. It's lovely and graceful and completely intriguing, just like Sam.

moments | a summertime trip home

Last month, my little family packed up and headed East where wildflowers were blooming, summer storms were rolling in, and harvest was finishing up. It was such a sweet time. The weather was unseasonably nice (70's!) and things were green and lush; a nice change of pace from our brown and thirsty landscape in Southern California. Time on the farm where I spent my childhood was nothing short of refreshing and the slower pace of a vacation in the Midwest had a rejuvenating and calming effect on us. I grew up on a farm with a white picket fence, backyard tire swing, land to explore and animals to smother love. I can't think of a better childhood. Above are a few snaps of the home I grew up in and little things that people living there take for granted, but make my heart go pitter patter.

a change of pace

After quite a bit of silence, I am back in a new little blog space ready to write and photograph and hopefully bring a bit of cheer and encouragement to your day.

It turns out I needed a bit of a break from blogging and all of the noise that comes along with being online. Also I was growing, birthing and learning to mother a baby boy. I've been creating new rhythms, discovering new things about living simply in my little home. And I may as well blog about it, right?

So after some thought, I decided to tweak my space into more than a food blog. I will, of course, post recipes; but also some mama things, photos and bits of our little home life that I never want to forget. Things I'm learning, and dreaming up through written word and photography. This space is now a bit more of a journal, a bit of a space for me to stretch out and learn a thing or two.

I hope you enjoy it all, just the same. If you happen to follow along, I hope you find delight in my words. If it's not for you, that's alright. No hard feelings, feel free to move on. Not everyone finds my ramblings on enjoying simplicity and cookie baking interesting.

I'll be back soon!