Remembering Those Who Served

Thank you, Dad and all other veterans, for your sacrifice.

A Vote for Hope

An election day cake for the family and cupcakes for the bake sale!

Paper Dolls

I came home from work Saturday night (I work as a waitress, so it was late) to find these beautiful paper dolls sitting on the dining room table. I quizzed my husband, "was she bored and you told her to draw something?" "No." "Did she find the idea in a book?" "No." "Was she looking at pictures of people in costumes?" "No, she just sat at the table and made them." Amazing... (the one on the far right has leaves for hair and on the bodice of her dress)

Variations on a Leaf Craft

My 7-year-old was bored and demanded that someone suggest something fun to do (because, of course, most of my original suggestions involved chores). So I told her to go outside and gather some leaves. When she came in, I showed her and her 3-year-old sister how to do leaf rubbings with crayons on paper, as I had seen on this post on maya*made. (we skipped the watercolor part)

Well, little miss 3 didn't have much patience for this rubbing sort of craft, and soon settled on making something completely of her own imagination involving two of her very favorite activities in the whole entire world - gluing and cutting. She created quite the work of art, I believe. It had to be put in the window, too, just like big sister's leaf rubbings!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

Here's what was left on Tuesday of the dozen and a half of Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins I made on Sunday night. The family loved them. It's a recipe from Simply in Season, a cookbook I don't own yet (I'm borrowing the Milwaukee Central Library's copy). This cookbook will definitely go on my Christmas list - it's the cookbook I've been looking for my entire adult life! We are vegetarians and this book is not a vegetarian cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegetarian or easily made that way. It is divided up by season and offers healthy recipes for using produce that is in season. Such a simple concept! Also, I sometimes have trouble with "healthy" recipes not suiting the tastes of myself or my children, but I've tried five recipes already and they were all outstanding! Below is the recipe, as I made it - it is called Nutty Pumpkin Bread in the book (there are some other options for some of the ingredients in the book, too). I made it as muffins to appeal to the kids. I would like to make this with bananas, too.

Nutty Pumpkin Muffins

>1 1/2 cups flour
>1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
>1 cup wheat germ
>1 cup sugar
>1 cup brown sugar
>2 teaspoons salt
>2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
>1/2 teaspoon each ground ginger, nutmeg
Mix together in a large bowl and make a well.

>1 1/2 cups pumpkin (cooked and pureed - I used canned)
>4 eggs (lightly beaten)
>1/2 cup oil
>1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
>1 cup dates (chopped)
Add into the well and mix just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into muffin tins. Bake in preheated oven at 350F until toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean, 40 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.