Cooker and eater

Oliver could live on air and goldfish crackers... and the occasional pizza... and popsicles in the summer... and birthday cake.... and cucumbers... but that is about it. We have, however, discovered that the chances of him actually eating something goes up when he helps to cook it (full disclosure, it is more cutting stuff up than cooking but it is good enough for him... and for us). He gets really serious about it- insisting on putting on my apron- and carefully cuts vegetables. Andreas even gives him a good cutting knife- which gives me a heart attack- but Oliver always works very carefully...  he's probably safer than I am with knives 😉. Anyway, if he is the cooker, he also ends up being the eater... and I end up feeling better about his diet 😉 Plus he looks very cute with an apron on.... 😉

Hope you all had a great day! xox

PS: he calls himself "cooker" so it is not just bad grammar 😉

Noma, here he comes! ;)

Watch the knife! ;)

Like father, like son! Both with aprons ;)

Apple picking in the garden

We have an apple tree in our back yard. Normally, we don't get very many (decent) apples but, this year, Andreas and I decided to pick them before the worms get to them. We ended up with a pretty good first harvest and I will be making a BIG batch of apple sauce this weekend. There is something extremely satisfying about growing your own food... :)

Turnip time

Andreas planted some turnips (amongst other vegetables) in our garden this spring. I love when we get to harvest-and use- them! The latest bounty (?) is our turnips. Actually, there was also a green pepper but Oliver started to eat it before I could take a picture of it ;) I am excited to make a soup, with the turnips. Wow- something the kids actually like!

Yesterday was a busy day.. yes, that is my sort of apology for not blogging yesterday :(  I am trying to get my work-work done before heading off on a mini camping holiday. That will be a totally different blog entry: my honest thoughts on camping with kids ;) I am also trying to stick to my summer resolution of cleaning out every room in our house... urgh! Not my favourite thing to do!

Have a great day!

The fate of the kamakazi basil

Like I said in yesterday's post, the basil plant was totally on its way out so I decided to use it. Result = a big batch of home made pasta sauce and tomato salad, all with loads of fresh basil ;) YUM!

Today, Oliver is having beach day at his daycare and the big boys had swimming lessons this morning. Now, I am trying to get my work-work done (well, besides getting my fun-work done) before afternoon swim and evening soccer... whew! I am guessing that we will all sleep well tonight :) My biggest lesson learned with boys (well, at least OUR boys) is that lots of physical activity = calmer kids and more relaxing evenings!

Hope you all have a great day!

Meat sauce.... with fresh basil

Tomato salad... with fresh basil ;)

Kamakazi basil and sausage treats

Hello :)

Yesterday I bought a basil plant from the grocery store. Not because I needed it for cooking, I just really LOVED the scent of it... I walked by and it hit me. I NEED TO BUY BASIL. Even if I didn't need it right away, I thought it would be a good idea to tend to the plant and have some basil stocked in my kitchen. Anyway, I should know better because I have made the same mistake in the past (= a few times). It is kamakazi basil! This means that, the second it leaves the store, it starts to die. Seriously. I took off the plastic, put it in a bowl of cool water, put it into indirect sunlight... whatever... it is still dying. I am thinking that it is a genetically mutant plant, destined to die within 2 days of leaving the grocery store ;)

On a more successful kitchen story, I made some pretty good sausage treats (I think they are called Pig-in-a-Blanket here (?), pølsehorn (?) in Denmark). Anyway, it is basically a sausage, wrapped in dough. I used a home made bread dough and brushed it with egg/sesame seeds before putting them in the oven. They ended up being a handy hot summer dinner. Not bad, if I can say so :)

Today is still hot and it feels like we will end up with a thundershower before long. Oliver is back to daycare today and I have a mid afternoon doctor's appointment with Nicka. Poor Alexander is not so thrilled to be dragged to that errand ;) 

Good day to you all!

Hang on, kamakazi basil!

Ready for the oven

Ready for eating... yum!

Saved by the pizza!

Two years ago, my New Year's resolution was to seriously limit the amount of fast food that we eat as a family. It has been a fairly easy resolution to keep. The biggest help is to be organized, to plan ahead, and have a few options handy. One of my saviours is pizza.... I make the dough (see recipe here) ahead of time in big batches and store it in the fridge for a quick dinner or lunch. It is also a life saver then the boys have friends over! I make an easy sauce with crushed tomatoes, fresh basil and spices, then add on whatever meats I have in the fridge and top it off with cheese. Andreas loves tuna pizza so I make that too. A recent experiment was tuna with pesto (instead of tomato sauce... I ran out!). It was actually pretty good. In all, with the dough already made, it takes about 25 minutes, including cooking/cooling time! A pretty healthy meal and the boys like it!

Pizza dough, straight out of the fridge!

Salami

Pesto with tuna and onion

Plain cheese