Having fun outside

Well, I am not sure that Ben would consider tummy time fun

Ahhh, that's better... He isn't rolling quite yet, but is sure trying

Our first finger painting episode turned us into a Pict!

Oh? I am supposed to put that ON the paper

Wiggling around the house

Zach the magician!

Running!

Waiting

Umm, where did my baby go? Who is this little boy? When did I blink?

"Hey you! Get off my lawn! Little whippersnapper!" Babies look like old men!

Happy pants!

And mom and dad trying to get Ben to ham it up for the camera

News you can use

Well, as many of you who read this already know, my father is pretty seriously ill and is receiving heart and cancer treatments at Columbia Medical Center.

I'll be posting updates on the Champion Charley website.

But not to be a total bummer, here are some cute pictures of the kids.

Fun on a Monday

Well, we had a productive weekend and are set for a lot to do this week. But, in all our busy-ness, our boys are still adorable!

note the milk drool

Warm summer days

So the sun has finally come out. I barely recognize it! We are supposed to have a weekend full of good weather, and I am hoping that the tomatoes will get the hint and start ripening. We have BUSHELS of green tomatoes that are doing approximatly nothing on the vine. Mid August and we've gotten three!!

Zach helps with the laundry

Distracted from bumping out head

Grandmere makes an excellent jungle gymn for an up-down boy!

Happy outside

August happenings

Well, the boys are growing and changing fast! Ben is getting pretty big. At 11 weeks he's about 13# and is 25 inches long. He's a very contented baby most of the time, but he gets Rather Upset when he's hungry or his diaper is dirty.

Zachary encounters blackberries for breakfast

We started a red ale yesterday that should be ready mid September. Next up is a chocolate stout.

And we make our own yogurta little more than once a week. Then we use the whey from the drained yogurt to make bread. The yogurt recipe is a pretty standard crock pot (slow cooker) recipe. The bread is cobbled together from various recipes.

Crock Pot Yogurt

1/2 gallon whole milk
1/2 cup yogurt (start with commercial, then save from your batch)

Pour milk into cooker and turn on low
Cook for 3 hours.
Turn off crock pot and cool for 2 1/2 hours
Whisk in 1/2 cup of yogurt
Place crock in a slightly warmed oven (oven should be off) let sit for 8 hours
Drain yogurt with a cloth over a colander into a bowl. We use the fabric from an old tee-shirt. The longer you drain it, the thicker it becomes.

Then save the whey, and make...

Whole Wheat Whey Bread

Wheat Flour 3 cups

Wheat germ (optional) 1/2 cup

All purpose flour 1 cup plus 6 cups plus more for kneading

instant yeast 2 Tablespoons

granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons

canola oil 2 Tablespoons

whey 4 cups, heated to 105-115. This needs to be brought to 4 cups with water or milk (milk will curdle and it's ok) if you are using the leftovers from the above yogurt recipe

salt 1 ½ tablespoons

In mixer with beater attachment combine 3 cups of whole wheat flour, and 1 cup all purpose flour, wheat germ, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix to combine.

Add whey and canola oil and mix.

Oil a large bowl for rising

Place dough in bowl and roll around to coat in oil

Place plastic wrap over dough and set to rise in refrigerator for 24-48 hours. You can also rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Punch down and divide for loaves or rolls

Cover dough with generous amounts of flour

Let rise again. If it has been refrigerated this is about 3h. If not, 45m

Bake at 375 for 30-35 m

Busy!

Playing with our new toy

When dad's dress babies. Stripes and plaids!

Morning all!

Recipes Take one

As requested from the Baptism and on FB, here are a couple of recipes. The tuna wraps are from my dad, the baba ganoush was created by me

As requested!
Baba ganoush
Ingredients for enough spread for 2-3 adults. I used the small eggplants because buying one ENORMOUS eggplant generally creates more baba ganoush than two people can eat. So, if you have a party and want to make it, use one giant one. This recipe uses a food processor, but can be done by hand with more sweat equity!

o 3 small eggplants
o 3 cloves of garlic
o 1/8-1/4 cup of tahini
o lemon juice if needed

1. Grill the eggplant on the grill, on low, till collapsed. If it is the middle of winter and you don't want to grill, put the eggplant in a casserole dish and put in in a 300 degree oven for about an hour.

2. With the blade going, chop the garlic in a food processor.

3. Scrape the eggplant off the skin into the food processor

4. Add tahini, a little at first, and then more to taste

5. Add lemon juice and or salt if needed



Tuna Wraps With Lemon and Oregano

Time: 10 minutes

1 6 1/2-ounce (or whatever size you can get) can tuna packed in water

4 tablespoons unsalted (or salted) butter, softened at room temperature

Freshly grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 plump fresh garlic clove, peeled and squeezed

1 stalk of celery, chopped

Wraps.

Method
- Drain tuna and put it in a bowl.
- Using a fork, break the tuna up into as small pieces as possible.
- Add butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil oregano, salt, pepper and garlic.
- Mash and/or whip together all these ingredients until they are a smooth paste.
- Spread the tuna mixture on a wrap.
- Roll the wrap into a cylinder - serve as a sandwich.
- For bite-size servings - using a sharp, serrated knife, cut the cylinder into 1/2 inch rounds and fasten each one with a tooth pick; it works best to put in the toothpick before making the cut.

Notes:
· The original recipe called for using a food processor, but since I didn’t have one and didn’t want to use a blender, I developed the method shown above.
· We re frigerated the tuna mixture and spread it on wraps one and two days later; it was fine.

Yield: with 2 wraps, about 15 bite-sized servings.