Homemade Marinara (it's cheap too!)

We're on a bit of a tight budget lately, so I'm up to my old tricks in making everything from scratch.  I found this article in Good Housekeeping a few years ago that I clipped and, for some reason, I never used it.  So, as I was digging through my recipe bag (yes, it is a ziplock bag, and no, I don't intend to change my "system" any time soon) this morning looking for a totally different recipe, I pulled out this gem and put it to good use immediately.

Turns out, it is absolutely delicious!  I changed it up a bit and just used the basic idea, so here is the new and improved version.  Most people have their own tomato sauce recipe, but if you feel like changing it up a bit, try this one.  It costs about 47 cents a serving (versus $1.50 per serving of the bottled sauce, on average).

Marinara:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed with press

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes in juice (you can also use whole tomatoes)

Salt and pepper

1 tsp dried basil (or 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil, chopped)

Five fresh sprigs of thyme (leaves removed, of course)

Dash of marjoram

1/2 tsp oregano

In a 4 quart saucepan, heat oil over medium heat until hot.  Add onion and cook until tender, about 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in garlic and tomato paste; cook 1 minute.  Stir in tomatoes with their juice, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper; heat to boiling over high heat, breaking up tomatoes with back of spoon if you have used whole tomatoes.  Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes.  Stir in herbs.  If not using right away, transfer to a container with tight fitting lid and refrigerate up to three days or cool 30 minutes and freeze up to 3 months.  Makes enough to coat 1lb cooked pasta.

Personally, I am letting the flavors mellow in the fridge overnight and we'll have it tomorrow night for dinner with browned meat and some veggies to make a primavera.  I'm sure we could get fancier than canned tomatoes and tomato paste, but this is what I had in the pantry and it is actually quite inexpensive to be so tasty.

(Like my lid?  My aunt bought this one for me, but I've seen it online here.)

Caramel-Pecan Sticky Buns

On special holidays, birthdays, or just a sweet homecoming, I like to make my favorite caramel-pecan sticky buns.  Sure, I could stick to the old cinnamon bun recipe, which is decent in its own way.  But nothing says, "I love you" like these sticky buns.  They're not that much harder to make and if done correctly, they can be delightful.

So, get your favorite cup of java ready, because you're gonna need it when you eat this delectable treat.

Caramel-Pecan Sticky Buns

2 1/4 teaspoon dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water (110F to 115F)

3/4 cup warm milk  (110F to 115F)

1/4 cup sugar

3 T vegetable oil

2 t salt

3-3/4 to 4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

3 t cinnamon

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

In a mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Add the milk, sugar, oil, salt and 1-1/4 cups flour.  Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth (I use a wooden spoon - just make sure you mix everything until smooth).  Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (not too tacky).  Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.  Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about one hour.**

Punch down dough.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll into an 18-inch by 12-inch rectangle.  Spread butter to within 1/2 inch of edges/  Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over butter. Roll up, jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal.  Cut into 12 slices (I use a three inch piece of thread and wrap it around the dough, pull tightly and that cuts it perfectly without smooshing the dough). 

Combine brown sugar and cream; pour into a greased 13-inch by 9-inch by 2-inch baking pan.  If you are in a high altitude, do not use glass.  Sprinkle with pecans.  Place rolls, cut side down, over pecans.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.  Or, you can cover and place in the fridge overnight, but make sure you take them out half an hour before baking to bring to room temperature.

Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until well browned.  Cool for one minute before inverting onto a serving platter.  Yield:  1 dozen

Caution:  these are addictive, if done right.

**I learned a little trick from America's Test Kitchen that I use with all my dough.  Preheat the oven to its lowest setting (mine is 175F) then turn it off.  Use a glass bowl, like Pyrex makes, to put the dough into.  Once the dough is in the bowl and greased well, cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in the warmed oven.  It cuts the rise time in half and makes for a very light and airy bread.  You can use this secret with pizza dough, bread, sweet breads, rolls, etc.  

Roseola

It has been quite a week at our house.  Hudson, only 11 months-old, was diagnosed with Roseola after three days of high fevers.  The President actually visited our little town during the worst of his fever and I was so nervous that I might not be able to get Hudson to the hospital or pediatrician's office when he hit 103.8F and stayed there for THREE hours despite medicine!  Fortunately, his heart was able to withstand the high fever with no issues that I could detect.  Unfortunately, his high fever lasted for a little over three days and never went below 101.5F until today, minus three hours of low-grade yesterday morning.  

He has not slept much in his pack-n-play - mostly just in my arms, on the couch, in my bed, in the Ergo Baby, etc.  I snapped a few shots of my sick little baby in different sleeping positions.  

I think the worst of it is over, except that he appears to have gotten a cold.  His heart is strong and despite getting checkups every six months to make sure it is okay, we are encouraged by this week's experience.  He does have a 50/50 chance of having Brugada Syndrome, like his brother, and it appears that he does not have it.  He has not been given the all-clear by the cardiologist yet, but his heart appears to be healthy.  

What a blessing this little surprise has been to our lives.  

Medical Tidbit for Kids

In light of a high fever that has occurred at our home this evening, I wanted to share a piece of information that my husband and I find invaluable in times of sickness.

When Sam was first diagnosed with his heart condition, we had to give him so much Tylenol and Motrin in order to keep his fevers down (fevers for him are life threatening) that we began to become concerned that we might over medicate him.  Thus, the chart was born:

Name of Child	Med & Dose	Time Given	Parent

Not the sick one this time

We keep this printed chart (with many more cells) on our bathroom counter with a pen close by.  Now that we have more than one child, we have had to add the "Name of Child" cell, because, inevitably, more than one child will get sick at a time.  Oftentimes, if the fever is extra high or stubborn, we will add another row entitled "Temperature" or just scribble it in somewhere on the chart.  The cell that you can't see completely on the right says "Parent."

When it comes time to see the pediatrician, this little chart comes in mighty handy.  We know exactly when the fever occurred, how often we medicated (even breaks or gaps in between) and which parent was doing the medicating.  Generally speaking, I am the medicine caregiver in our family.  However, on the off-chance that I am tending to another child or sitting in a dark room holding a sick baby, my husband will get the medication prepared and hand it to me.  He signs the chart as though he has given the medicine on those occasions.

So, just another small tidbit from a mom with a special needs kiddo - something that might make any family move a little more functionally during sickness.  I hope it helps.

Homemade Deodorant

I've been wrestling with myself for a long time about the antiperspirant I use.  I kept reading about the aluminum in antiperspirant being linked to breast cancer.  Although no conclusive data has been found (according to this website and a few others).  But I kept hearing my friends who have recovered from breast cancer tell me that their oncologists have told them two things - no more processed foods and no more antiperspirants.

So, when my antiperspirant ran out, I decided to make my own.  And you know what?  It was not only cheap, it actually works.  I put the mixture in a mason jar and use clean fingers to apply.

Here's the recipe, if you dare:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup baking soda
4 Tbsp coconut oil

I mixed it with my fingers, since coconut oil actually becomes liquid at 76 degrees F (25C).

You can add 10 drops of your favorite essential oil if you like too.  I think the next time I make it I will add Tea Tree Oil, since it not only smells clean, it also neutralizes odors naturally.  So well, in fact, that I use it when washing my cloth diapers.

Am I preventing breast cancer?  I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that I just saved my wallet a little extra money and my conscience is clean, as well as my personal scent.

The Cascades

The KlearLife Kids on the Cascades Hike

We are thoroughly enjoying the Fall season here in the High Country.  The beauty of the colors this weekend reminds me how much I missed all of this when I was living overseas.  I think we've hit the peak of the season though, as we are experiencing a lot of wind and even this afternoon there are more bare trees than there were this time yesterday.  

We are ready to paint our pumpkins, eat more pumpkin treats (like those delicious muffins), have apple pie and start canning raw pears (I still have two huge bags full and they are absolutely delicious this year!).  

Check out those enormous leaves Carolina is hanging on to.  I have never seen a Chestnut Oak leaf as big as the one she found this morning on our hike.  We like to identify all the leaves as we walk through the forest and Carolina hit the jackpot with big ones today.  I felt like we were in some prehistoric jungle!  The Tulip Poplar leaf on the top of her pile is just one example.  

Everyone is having birthdays this month - Sam just turned five, Carolina turned four and Hudson hits the big ONE in two weeks.  I can't believe how quickly everyone is growing.  It's a bit different this year because Sam is being homeschooled and Carolina is taking ballet classes - I feel like we're finally hitting some sort of "American family" standard or something. 

Oh, and Hudson is walking.  *Deep sigh*

I'm off to enjoy them some more before the afternoon fades too quickly.

More Food!

Need I say more?

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Four years ago on October 11th, a baby girl was found in front of the steel doors behind a clinic in Guangzhou, China.  The doctors who found her took note of everything she was wearing, weighed her, photographed her, checked her over and called the police to report an abandoned baby.

Her birth mother will never be known to her, nor will the circumstances of her abandonment.

I have read the book Message From an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xue Xinran and I think it is safe to say it is anyone's guess as to why my daughter was abandoned.

What I do know is this - Carolina was born healthy, abandoned within hours of her birth, clothed well with plenty of blankets for warmth and placed in a very public spot.  The person who left her there, in front of those doors, wasn't doing something cold and unfeeling.  It was obviously a very well thought-out decision - I stood in that alley and looked around it to see if I could find a spot where someone might hide, watching and waiting to see when she might be found.  There were so many hiding places I lost count.

I am sure that the decision to leave her, to give her up, was a difficult one.  Maybe it was for protection from a family who demanded a boy.  Maybe it was because she already had another sibling and her birth family wanted more for her than to be a second child with no rights.  Maybe they couldn't afford to keep her.  Maybe her birth mother was too young to care for her.

Whatever the case, Carolina wasn't aborted.  Her birth mother carried her for close to nine months, based on her birth weight.  She felt Carolina's first kick.  She knew when Carolina was active and when she was asleep inside her womb.  She felt birth pangs.  She delivered my child.  She had the rush of hormones after the baby was born - the hormones that God blessed mothers with so that they will feel love and attachment to their children.  And still, this mother was unable to raise her child - or even keep her.  Perhaps she was unable to even lay eyes on her.

I have prayed for Carolina's birth mother from the moment we decided to adopt a child.  I am praying for her today, as I do every year around Carolina's birthday.  I pray she will come to know Christ.  I pray she will be blessed with Christian friends.  I pray God will confirm to her that her decision, or maybe her circumstances in giving Carolina up, was not in vain.  And I pray that she will somehow know that Carolina is loved and enjoying freedom that most Chinese people do not enjoy.  Freedom that comes with her rights as a citizen of the United States of America.

Four years ago on October 11th, a child was born.  She struggled for twenty months in a Social Welfare Institute.  Struggled for life, for food, to develop and even to live.  Twenty months - that's how long it took before she met her mother and her father.

She was my first.  First in our hearts.  We prayed for her before we even knew we could conceive a child biologically.

Happy birthday, Sweet Child.  We love you dearly and we will never stop praying for you and ourselves as we try to parent you in the best way possible.  I am so blessed to know you, despite our butting heads most days, and so blessed that you are a fighter.  Your personality is boisterous and infectious.  Even with the long nights you have given us, some of the most difficult days (and nights) of our lives, we will love you with an unyielding love always and forever.  I am so grateful God knit you for our family in another mother's womb.  Happy birthday.

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

Looking for something to warm up your otherwise cool Fall mornings?  Around here, we don't have Starbucks, so we have to get a bit creative (well, also because we are frugal as well).  When I saw a friend of mine had made these muffins, I immediately asked for the recipe.  We have had two birthday parties in two weekends and dedicated Hudson to the Lord today, so with all the family and friends visiting, this was a must!


Here it is (don't let the ingredients list fool you - it may seem like a lot, but it's really just basic stuff):


Makes about 2 dozen muffins

Dry Ingredients:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. espresso powder (or 6 tbsp. instant coffee granules)
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup canola or vegetable oil
4 large eggs
½ cup coffee or espresso, for brushing

For the whipped cream:
2¼ cups heavy cream, chilled
¼ cup confectioners' sugar

For garnish:
Ground cinnamon
Caramel sauce


Directions:
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners or grease the tin. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Stir together and set aside. 


In a separate bowl use an electric mixer, to blend together the pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar and oil. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixture on low speed, add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing just until incorporated.


Fill the cupcake liners about three-quarters full. Bake until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18-20 minutes. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pans. While the cupcakes are still warm, brush them two or three times with the coffee or espresso, allowing the first coat to soak in before repeating. Let cool completely.
To make the frosting, place the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on medium-low speed at first, gradually increasing to high speed. Blend in the confectioners' sugar gradually. Whip until stiff peaks form, being careful not to over-beat. Use a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip to frost the cooled cupcakes. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and drizzle with caramel sauce. Enjoy!

IF you have any left, store in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Special thanks to April L. for her contribution of the recipe.