Hearts and Chocolate

Happy Monday!! Today was a beautiful but super cold day today!  The girls and I visited one of our favorite places-- the Natick Community Organic Farm.  We haven't been out there since the snow really began to accumulate and we were amazed at just how different our little farm looked in the deep winter.  We visited with our animal friends and were amazed to see my favorite-- Mama Pig-- wading through the snow while we shivered in full winter garb.  I guess that layer of fat really does make a difference.  We picked up free range eggs freshly  laid by our chicken friends for the egg eaters of the family and headed home for crafts and lunch.

Later, the girls did some watercolor painting for a craft project I had planned:

After the paintings were finished, I cut them into heart shapes.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love a good bunting.  I think I have made one for every season at this point, but we didn't yet have a Valentine's bunting...until today!

This turned out much prettier than it looks in the picture (darn flash).  I'll have to take another tomorrow.  Anyway, this is a great way to use kids artwork that you can't bear the throw away.  Cut heart shapes out of the paintings, and sew them to a ribbon or tape them to a string and voila!  So colorful and pretty.

Afterward, we decided to try a recipe that I saw online here .  The recipe is for raw vegan doughnut holes and it was a big hit with the kids!  You just mix a cup of ground flax, three tablespoons of Maple syrup or agave, and two tablespoons of cocoa powder.  Add a little coconut oil if it isn't moist enough.  Mix it all together and it is surprisingly delicious, besides being super healthy.  Sure, we rolled ours in a  little powdered sugar, but still!  This is going to be a go-to snack for the kids when they are begging for something sweet.

Yum!

Goofball

Today I made Willow this shirt in honor of Valentine's Day (to the art critics out there-- it was modeled on the Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture but I now realize the O is facing is facing the other direction. Oh well).   I cannot make her less goofy, though...

Off to the Museum, Crafts and Marshmallows

Jay returned from his much delayed but ultimately successful business trip to Philadelphia.  Woo!  This Mama was getting to the end of her rope and needed reinforcements!  He very kindly took the kids to the Boston Children's Museum for the day so that I could recover.  Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Fun with magnets

Willow performed in the play!

Kid power

The construction zone

Also, here are a couple of pictures from yesterday (look at me already missing a day posting!):

The girls and I melted down old crayons to make cool new ones.  The shape makes them less useful for detailed drawing but the girls had fun looking for old, broken crayons and deciding which colors should be combined in the tray.  Plus, they are so pretty to look at :-). 

Sorting (just don't look at the floor)

The finished product

Deranged Cat in the Hat

Also, I wanted to post the marshmallow recipe we love for anyone that is up for making them from scratch.  It is easier than you think (though a standing mixer is a BIG help).  They definitely aren't healthy-- I have tried agave and rice syrup instead of corn syrup but it just doesn't taste right.  At least the corn syrup we use isn't high fructose, right?  Either way, marshmallows should be an indulgence.  Here is the recipe we use (adapted from somewhere on the Internet but I can't find the original source.  Sorry)

Marshmallows

Ingredients:
1.5 cups granulated suger
1 Cup corn syrup
3 packages gelatin (or about 1 Tablespoon agar agar powder for vegan marshmallows)
1 Cup ice water, divided
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1.2 cup corn starch


Directions:

• Empty gelatin or agar agar into mixer bowl and add 1/2 cup of the ice water.  Let sit while you work on step 2.
• Cook the sugar, other 1/2 cup water, corn syrup and salt in a sauce pan on medium/high until it reaches about 240 degrees (I never actually measure this-- I just remove the pan a couple of minutes after it starts boiling-- but you are supposed to)
• Pour cooked mixture into the bowl with the gelatin and water and turn mixer on the lowest speed.
• As mixture combines, turn mixer to highest speed and allow to mix for about 10 minutes.
• To prepare your pan:  Lay plastic wrap across a pan (brownie size for big, chunky marshmallows, a wider pan for ones that are less thick.  Spray the wrapped pan with lots of cooking spray (don't miss a spot or your sticky marshmallows will be stuck!) and coat with a mixture of the cornstarch and powdered sugar.  Save the leftover for the finished marshmallows.
• When the 10 minutes are up, add the vanilla (or whatever flavoring you want to add.  We are old school here but coffee or chocolate extract would be cool for a fancy gift) and mix for another minute or so.
• Pour into pan, spread and cover with more cornstarch/powdered sugar and plastic wrap.  
• Let sit on the counter overnight.
• the next day, remove plastic and and place (ok, I just dump it) the hunk of  marshmallow onto a cutting board.  Cut into pieces and roll each piece in the cornstarch/powdered sugar until it is no longer sticky.
• Have hot chocolate ready because otherwise you will eat all of your delicious marshmallows before you have a chance to try them in their most delicious habitat-- hot chocolate!  We think the unset marshmallow would make a great cake frosting, too!

Happy Weekend!!

So.Much.Snow

I spent most of the day shoveling, thanks to another big snowstorm.  This is one of those rare seasons where the weatherperson's predictions always underestimate the amount of snow we are going to receive.  Good lord, we are running out of places to put it! 
Here are a few photos of the day...

The view out of the guest room window

Willow in her snow cave under the patio table

Looking down on a grumpy Indigo from  the mountain of snow beside our driveway

 

 

We can now walk over the fence between our front and back yard

The pathway to the front door

This is what I saw when I peeked in on Indigo at nap time.  Yes, she is asleep under that book :)

Photos from the day....

Still sick, but we managed to have some fun anyway.  I finished up making homemade marshmallows in preparation for tonight's snow and tomorrow's shoveling (with reward hot chocolate).  I"ll have to pass along the recipe when I feel better because they are DELICIOUS.  We'll never go back to packaged.  Here is what they look like after mixing:

And the finished product piled in a bowl and ready to be added to a steaming mug of cocoa.  Yum!!

Next, I poured beans in a couple of bowls and handed each girl a bowl and measuring cup.  They loved pouring and counting and piling the little beans.  Willow and I also worked on estimating-- though that seemed to be a bit of an advanced concept for her.  Every time I asked her how many beans she estimated to be in her cup, she always said twenty-seven.  I finally had her count out twenty-seven beans and set them aside to see how few beans that really is compared to the number in her cup, but as soon as I asked again what her estimate was, she again said twenty-seven.  We'll have to keep working on that one :-).

Watching the snow fall.

 
Later,we went on a little snow walk.  More snow ahead tomorrow!

Photos from today

I caught the bug that went around through the rest of my family, so I'll keep this short and just post a few pictures from the day....

First, the girls decided to have a "blind taste test" (how do they even know what that is???) by closing their eyes and biting pieces of wooden play bread.  They would guess what it is and then trade slices and try again.  They crack me up :)

It snowed again today-- just a couple of inches this time.  So, we headed out to do a little shoveling.  Indigo always wants to help, even though her shovel is too big and it is hard to grip with those bulky mittens on.

While Indigo worked, Willow enjoyed an icicle:

Todays art project took place in the snow.  I gave Willow a squeeze bottle of watered down paint and encouraged her to use it to "draw" all over the snow.  The results were pretty cool:

I couldn't find my other squeeze bottle, so I gave Julia a squirt bottle filled with blue paint, which she happily sprayed all over the snow:

I also started making a yummy treat, but I'll post more about that tomorrow.  Now off to catch some sleep.  Goodnight!

An indoor kind of day

And I thought yesterday was cold!  The thermometer said -3 degrees as I headed to the gym this morning at 8:30 (patting myself on the back for heading down there anyway!).Poor Jay headed off to catch the commuter rail into Boston at 6 this morning and returned home after waiting for two hours in the frigid sub-zero temperatures.  He is a Wisconsin boy but this was cold even for him.

The little ones are recovering from colds and I didn't want to take them out in the chill, so we stayed in and had fun today.  First we baked lemon cupcakes (vegan and wheat free but totally delicious!) and then we decided to have an art show.  We each created a work of art and then displayed them in our gallery (the dining room).

Next, I laid each girl on a long piece of paper and traced their outline (remember doing this in school?).  They then colored and decorated their paper outlines.  We have done this one before and they never fail to have a great time.

Brrrrr

It was a super cold weekend and the kids are recovering from various illnesses so we had a mellow weekend.  Saturday we made a trip to our little winter farmer's market where we bought sweet potatoes and eggs (our one exception to the vegetarian and vegan diets in our households--- as long as we trust that the chickies were running free and treated well).  The little market is so tiny, not even filling the little elementary school gymnasium that it occupies in the winter months but it is nice to be able to buy fresh, local produce and mingle with the neighbors. 

We went home and made mini pizzas using the awesome dough recipe from Allergy Free Kids.  The kids will actually eat the pizza if they are given carrot strips, olives and broccoli to make faces on their individual pies.  Am I the only person in the world with a kid who (usually) hates pizza?  For dessert I made vegan strawberry cheesecake with a homemade graham cracker crust.  SO good!

Today was so cold that we didn't venture out much.  It was right around 0 degrees as I drove to the gym at 7AM. Later, we were out for a drive and happened upon this scene, which immediately reminded both Jay and I of Mt. Hood:

This is the closest we have seen to mountain peaks in a long time!  It is actually a pile of snow in a mall parking lot.  It is amazingly high, dwarfing the trees around it!  It'll be even higher soon as we are due to get hit with another foot plus snowstorm on Wednesday! 

The next couple of days should be even worse as we dip into subzero temps. 

Snow Day

Welcome to our blog!
Our family started this blog as a way to stay in better contact with friends and family scattered across the country.  I am planning (hoping?) to post something every day...even if it is just a picture. Indigo and the Chicken may be the biggest focus in our lives (and our blog) but I am also planning to talk about my adventures in art, crafts and vegan, allergy-free cooking.  And, of course, I'll post lots of photos of our travels around New England.

We got another 9+ inches of snow today, on top of the 15-20 that we already had.  Jay had to go in to work, so I was "Shovelor"  (our name for the robotic shoveling machine that we become in such situations) today.  Normally I don't mind shoveling, but the snow pile on the side of the driveway was already so high before I began that with every load I had to huck it way up high over my head to ensure that the snow stayed up and off the driveway.  The girls did their part by climbing up my delicately balanced snow cliff and sliding down the resulting avalanche.   Between that and the (seemingly) gallons of snow they ate, Indigo and Willow were happy girls.

Next up, we headed inside for craft time.  I filled two art trays with shaving cream and paints and let them go to town.  Willow immediately set to spreading the cream across the tray.  Once she had a flat surface, she used her finger to practice writing her letters  across the gooey tray.

Indigo was more hesitant to get messy.  She would stick a tentative finger into the paint and then eye it suspiciously.  Finally, she realized that she could create green by mixing yellow and blue, so she began stirring the two together and squishing the resulting color between her fingers.

The kids had a great time, as they always do when our projects include a strong sensory component.  A bonus was the extra time Willow happily put in practicing her letters.  This seemed to help her to enjoy the process in a  new way.  I plan to try this again, but with trays full of flour, an idea I got from here.

Dinner tonight: Curried Rice, from one of my favorite cook books, Allergy Proof Recipes for Kids, by Leslie Hammond and Lynne Marie Rominger.  I add dried apricots instead of the currants called for in the book and it always turns out so delicious!  Despite the title of the book, though, the kids always refuse to eat this dish.  The idea of having chewing more than one kind of food (in this case, rice, carrots and apricots) at a time offends them, even though they like all of those foods separately.  All the more for Jay and I!

Looking forward to the weekend!  Hope the frigid temps (sub-zero!) don't put a damper on our fun...