A family of 6 foxes is living in the brush pile, just south of the rock. This morning they came up to play on the rock and Gary got these photos from the house. Finally, the mother fox saw us moving in the house and got spooked and took them all into the woods.
Don’t tell the nectarine and the peach tree that spring doesn’t officially begin until next week!
Before.
After.
Gary and I made bread in the wood fired oven again today. We are still working on timing the bread and oven and ended up baking bread until after dark. The good news is we didn’t burn any bread this time!
The white bread is pain al ancienne from Peter Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice. It’s our go to party bread. It’s easy and has a wonderful flavor. It’s a little under done today, but we’ll brown it when we reheat it.
The brown bread is multigrain struan, from Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads. We love it so much that it’s our new daily bread. It’s 100% whole grain and fairly high in protein. The bread is mostly whole wheat flour, but the multigrain part is up to the baker. My version includes quinoa, oats, cornmeal, chia seeds and flax seeds. Today is the first time I tried the sunflower seeds on the outside so I only did half the loaves. I was afraid of burning them, but they came out just fine.
Dave gave a fantastic performance last night in “The Poisoned Pen.” It was a really fun play and all the kids did a great job.
I wish I could have gotten a better photo, but my photography skillz were a big FAIL last night.
This year we had 45 guests for the annual Hoover Christmas Eve Celebration. I think they all had a pretty good time.
Mellow has no idea what is coming
It didn’t take long for Mellow to head to the bedroom closet to ride out the Christmas storm.
The kids had an ornament exchange.
I never did get a photo of everyone at once.
Dave is not texting. He's doing one of those metal puzzles.
A lot of people were out on the porch where we had a fire in the fireplace. It was too cold for me, so there aren’t any photos.
Tequila! And pickle juice? Yep, that's what they were drinking.
After a few hours of visiting and gift opening, some of the guests went down to the basement bar for something a little stronger than tea, coffee or wine.
Yes, we have a breathalizer.
We made sure all the drivers were legal. These were not the drivers.
was a hit, so I thought I would write down the recipe before I forget it.
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 cup pineapple
1 ripe banana
juice of one orange
1/2 cup coconut milk (So Delicious original flavor)
2 cups red Russian kale
Back in October I came down with a long lasting cold that’s been going around. Gary and Dave had already had it, so I knew what I was in for when I got the first sore throat. (There were 2 and the second one was worse.) I decided to take some immune boosting action. I stopped eating dairy products, started drinking carrot juice and began eating even more fruits and veggies.
Then I added one green smoothie a day to my diet. Wow! The smoothies made a huge difference in my energy level and general physical well being. I’ve had one almost every day for 32 days now. I started making them with an Oster blender, which works okay, but it takes a while and doesn’t pulverize the greens as well as a high powered blender.
After a month on the smoothies, we bought a Vitamix. The basic recipe I started with is:
2 Tb flax seeds
some pomegranate juice or water
a cup or so of frozen berries, usually blueberries and strawberries
one date
2 cups of greens, (lactino kale, red russian kale, collard greens, spinach, chard, dandelion greens…)
some mint from the garden
some ice
Today’s smoothie was pomegranate juice, lactino kale, a carrot, strawberries, a banana and flax seeds. I think it was too sweet with the carrot and banana and I won’t make this one again. Blend and learn.
Even though the smoothies always have greens in them, they are not always green. The basic recipe is more purple. The smoothies taste far better then they sound. If you use mild greens like spinach and chard, you really can’t taste the greens at all. I don’t always use berries or flax. Sometimes it’s an apple or orange or whatever fruit we have on hand. Raw almonds work well in place of flax and they are filling too. If you google green smoothie, you’ll find more recipes than you can make.
So, if you need an energy boost or an immune boost, try a green smoothie. You might be surprised at how good it makes you feel. I was.