posted in: Bell & Board, Easter, features, Spring

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Insta-Easter


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I know Easter was a good three weeks ago, but since the Easter season goes until Pentecost, which is on May 19th this year, let’s pretend that this post isn’t belated. Here’s a little recap of our Holy Week and Easter Sunday from our Instragram pictures.

recap-easter
  1. We attended a Maundy Thursday service together at Bethany Presbyterian on Queen Anne in Seattle. We were both in between workouts: Lisa was in her yoga gear and Becky in her soccer shorts. Thankfully it was a pretty casual affair so we didn’t stick out too badly.
  2. Becky bought a giant pack of Sharpie markers for her girls for Easter (or perhaps more for herself!) and her whole family had a blast decorating eggs. First they dyed them in the traditional manner in food-safe food coloring and then drew all over them in the possibly toxic Sharpies.
  3. Here’s Becky’s husband, Andy, mixing a massive amount of his famous Kickin’ Korean Chicken in preparation for our church’s post-Easter Vigil party. The recipe will be up soon!
  4. All the kids at church making a joyful noise during our Easter Vigil service. This part of the Easter Vigil service is seriously called the Tintinnabulation.
  5. Easter breakfast at Becky’s was fantastic! Becky made her now famous sticky buns (at least she thinks so) as mentioned in the last post and Lisa brought English meat pies from Pie and pink champagne!
  6. We both unintentionally wore yellow on Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful day here in Seattle 70 degrees! Too bad it’s been back in the 50s and raining ever since.

A little note: the theologian N.T. Wright suggests that during the Easter season we should have champagne for breakfast every day, if only we could afford that! However, champagne for breakfast on Easter will definitely become a tradition for us from now on. Does your family have any fun or unusual traditions for Easter? We’d love to hear about them!


posted in: Easter, features, Recipes

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Easter Sweet Pretzels


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Last year Bon Appetite featured a master sweet dough recipe in their April issue just in time for Easter. Their oh so amazing sticky buns made with the dough have become a permanent part of our Easter breakfast menu. Another recipe made with the dough from the same issue are these sweet pretzels.

Pretzels are a traditional Lent food; evidently the crossed dough represents crossed arms in prayer. But regardless of this somewhat confusing imagery (who crosses their arms when they pray?), those Lent pretzels were made only with flour, water and salt and given to children when their learned their prayers. Since baked goods in any form always seem a little decadent to me during Lent, I have decided to make these pretzels with all those rich goodies that their Lent cousins lack: eggs, sugar, and plenty of butter!

easter-pretzels

Easter Sweet Pretzels

(based this recipe from Bon Appetite April 2012)

Ingredients

2/3 cup milk

2 large eggs, room temperature (leave out of fridge for half an hour before starting the recipe)

5 T sugar, preferably superfine (but granulated will work just fine)

1 ¼ t instant yeast

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ t salt

½ cup butter, room temperature and cut into chunks

a couple teaspoons of neutral flavored oil to grease the rising bowl

egg white

any coarse sugar for sprinkling (I used some turbinado sugar I had on hand, but regular granulated sugar would also work)

Directions:

Whisk milk and eggs together in a bowl. Set aside

Mix flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a stand-up mixer bowl. With the paddle attachment on, add in the milk-egg mixture and mix until combined. Change to using the dough hook. With the machine running on medium-low, add the butter one piece at a time. Once all butter is added, put mixer on medium-high speed and knead for 5 minutes. Alternately you can use your food processor using the dough blade. But the final kneading will take less time, about 2-3 minutes total.

Oil a large bowl and plop the dough straight into it. Roll the dough around a bit so it is completely coated in oil. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and set in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1-2 hours.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and divide it on a generously floured counter top into 12 pieces. Get two cookie sheets and either grease them or cover them in parchment paper.

To shape the pretzels take one piece at a time and roll into a long rope about 17 inches long. Form the dough rope into a U shape and then twist the two arms around each other twice. Take the two arms and fold them down so that they touch the bottom of the “U”. Carefully, place them on the cookie sheets. Once finished with shaping all the pretzels, lightly cover the pretzel in a dishtowel and set in a warm place for 30 minutes or until they rise a bit.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the egg white with a teaspoon or so of water and lighly brush over pretzels. Sprinkle sugar over the top.  Bake pretzels for 16-18 minutes. They should be golden but not browned.

Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee!


posted in: Easter, Entertaining, features, Recipes, Spring

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Planning Easter Dinner


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Easter is in a week! I’m all in a flutter with so much to do: not only am I helping my mom make Easter dinner, but Lisa and I are in charge of food for our church’s Easter vigil and my son is getting baptized on Easter Sunday. I know from experience that a little preparation can make the difference between my family and I having a stressful Easter and having an enjoyable one.

If your not hosting Easter dinner then your job is easy: contact your host and offer to bring wine, a side dish, or dessert. Bring a bottle of wine even if they turn you down; a good party can never have too much wine. For more guest etiquette see our Thanksgiving etiquette post.

easter-planning

If you are hosting Easter diner your job is a little more complicated, but it needn’t be difficult. Here are some tips to make your Easter dinner planning a little easier.

Keep the day simple. Don’t try to do a big Easter breakfast. Pick up some pastries and coffee at your favorite bakery. This year I scored a groupon for some savory meat pies from Pie that Lisa will pick up for us Easter morning. I’m looking forward to those more than Easter dinner itself!

Delegate, delegate, delegate. Get all the help you can from your guests: ask them to bring something, give them an apron and knife to help you in the kitchen, or, if food is not their thing, give them the job of hiding eggs for the Easter egg hunt. If they complain you will just forget to invite them next year.

Wine with dinner. A couple years ago I bought What to Drink with What You Eat for my husband for his birthday, it is a fantastic reference for pairing wine (and other drinks) with different food flavors. Here are some of their wine suggestions. Ham goes well with Beaujolais, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Rieseling, and rosé. Drink lamb with a red Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz/Syrah, or Zinfandel. Good spring wines in general are Beaujolais, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer, Riesling, rose, and Sauvignon Blanc. And of course, being Easter, what a better wine than Champagne!

Plan your dinner in days and not hours. Do your grocery shopping on Friday and try to get most of the sides, dessert, and main course prep done on Saturday. Then on Easter Sunday all you have to do is pop your main course in the oven, assemble the other dishes and pour yourself a glass of  wine. Of course, it never turns out that easy and dinner is always and hour late, but at least you’ll be relaxed and prepared rather than frazzled.

Ideas for your menu.

  • Always delegate your appetizer, it’s that easy.
  • The traditional center of an Easter dinner is lamb or ham, but a roast pork loin also works well here.
  • For side dishes think seasonal vegetables such as asparagus, peas, bitter greens like arugula or dandelion, asparagus, and artichokes. And don’t forget deviled eggs and challah bread with honey-butter (a must at our Easter table).
  • After 6 weeks of fasting everyone is ready for dessert. Chocolate will always be a big hit, but something lemony or with coconut would be really good too. Or something with all three! Let your imagination go crazy, it’s Easter!
  • If you are still completely at a loss here are some great Easter dinner menus from Bon Appetit.

 

Now, let’s get cooking! What’s on your Easter menu? Any tips on making planning easier? We’d love to hear from you!


posted in: From Us, Lent, Spring

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Welcome Spring!


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Screen Shot 2013-03-20 at 1.11.08 PM

Happy first day of spring! Our household is starting to feel very springlike: this week I gladly put away my kids’s winter coats only to take them out again today, and I’ve started to get that Spring Cleaning urge. Not only that but Easter is less than two weeks away!

How are you enjoying the first day of Spring today?

(Image via blueberrylake.tumblr.com)


posted in: Lent, Recipes

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All About Vinegar


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all-about-vinegar

A jar each of quick pickled cauliflower and a blueberry lemon shrub, both in progress.

It is about this time during Lent that I start getting tired of it all, so it was such a treat this last week when Lisa took me to an All About Vinegar class at The Pantry at Delancey. Our instructor taught us how to make quick pickled vegetables, red wine vinegar, a reduced balsamic vinegar for drizzling, and most importantly introduced us to shrubs! A shrub is a sweet fruit infused vinegar that you cut with club soda and drink like a cocktail. It may sound gross, but it is not at all like taking a swig of distilled white vinegar, think of it more as a sparkling fruit juice with an edge. Lisa and I are smitten with shrubs, there may be no turning back!

I’ve been craving another shrub ever since so yesterday, using the blueberries I bought in an overzealous trip to Costco last summer, I threw together a blueberry lemon shrub. It will now sit on my counter taunting me until I can strain out all the solids, add sugar, and finally indulge. It will be worth the long wait, trust me.

Has anyone else ever tried a shrub? What did you think? I have no idea how my first attempt at making a shrub will turn out so I won’t give you an untested recipe. But if you are at all inspired to make your own check out Aida Mollencamp’s recipe, and let us know how you like it!


posted in: features, Lent, Recipes, Winter

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Lent Recipes, Part Three – Gado Gado Indonesian Salad


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I won’t kid you and tell you this recipe is easy. It’ll leave your sink full of dishes and your children crying at your feet out of neglect. But if all you make is the sauce I’ll be happy. For the next couple days I’ll be indulging in it in very un-Lent like ways by spooning it over hard-boiled eggs, rice, steamed vegetables, and you may just catch me eating it straight!

IMG_8480

Gado Gado Indonesian Salad

Inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe in Plenty

For the Sauce:

Thumb-sized knob of ginger

2 ½ tablespoons samal oelek (chile garlic paste)

½ small red onion

4-5 garlic cloves, peeled

zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime

1/3 cup neutral oil (sunflower, vegetable, etc.)

Combine ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Place the pureed sauce in a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat for 30-45 minutes until fragrant and thick.

Stir into the mixture:

2 t salt

¼ cup sugar

1 t paprika

juice of the lemon and lime,

¾ cup sunflower seed butter (or peanut butter for those of you without a life-threatening allergy)

1 cup coconut milk

Simmer gently for another 10 minutes .You may want to thin the sauce a bit with some hot water, it will thicken up quite a bit when it cools down.

For the Vegetables:

4 waxy potatoes quartered

½ cup green beans

1 cup mung bean sprouts

1 head of cauliflower, cut into ½” slices and tossed with a small amount of oil

Roast cauliflower in the oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes until soft and browned. Simmer two saucepans full of water on the stove. In one, boil the potatoes until they are tender about 15 minutes. Meanwhile in the other pot, blanch the green beans for 4 minutes and then take them out. Next blanch the bean sprouts for 30 seconds in the same water.

For the Salad:

½ green cabbage quartered and then thinly sliced

¼ red cabbage, quartered and then thinly sliced

1 carrot, grated

½ medium cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, seeded,  and then sliced (not necessary if using an English cucumber)

4 hard-boiled eggs, halved

½ red bell pepper, sliced

crispy shallots* (optional by highly suggested!)

¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro leaves

Combine the all the cabbage with the grated carrot in a large shallow bowl. Place cucumber, egg, red bell peppers, potatoes, green beans, bean sprouts and cauliflower on top. Serve with sauce on the side and optional toppings of cilantro and crispy shallots.

Enjoy!

*For crispy shallots: Thinly slice a shallot and mix it with ½ teaspoon salt. Heat ½ cup neutral oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. When hot add the shallot slices. Fry for 5-7 minutes until shallots are golden brown. Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel.


posted in: features, Holidays, Kids, Lent, Service, Traditions, Winter

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Lent for Kids


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Lent can be difficult for children to understand. Heck, I hardly understand it myself!  But one thing’s certain: for kids, Lent can sound like a big ball of lame. It doesn’t have the signs and symbols of Advent, the festive traditions of Christmas, or the glittery celebrations of Epiphany. It’s mysterious, somber, and almost too reflective and intangible for children. Penance? Meditation? Self-denial? Sounds like being grounded. For forty days.

Lent-for-Kids

Now, I’m not a mother, so please take my advice with a gratuitous pinch of salt, but I think it’s important to remember that Lent is part one of the three-part season of Lent, Easter and Pentecost. And the heart of this season’s message is the joy of God’s salvation manifest in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. Lent should be brimming with the same gleeful anticipation of Advent — probably even more so.

So I say focus on that joy. Make Lent fun. Make it hands-on. Make it festive. Just like Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, start cultivating traditions that are unique to your family: foods, activities, and rituals that your kids can look forward to every year.

If you’re cooking vegetarian like Becky, get the kids involved. Have this season be 40 days of your kids stirring, mixing, and chopping in the kitchen (see, I’m obviously not a mother!). Bring them grocery shopping with you and have them pick out crazy looking veggies. If you’re saving money for charities, help them put together a simple care package for a family in need, and then deliver it together. Or you could celebrate Halloween five months late (or seven months early?) by going door-to-door and trick-or-treating for UNICEF. I’m sure your neighbors wouldn’t mind. If you’re amping up your prayer time, help your kids come up with their own prayer list and make note of answered prayers. You might also let your kids pray over dinner during Lent.

There are quite a few resources for those of you looking to celebrate Lent with your kids. I’ve compiled just three below. If you know of any more, please share!

40 Acts Wall Calendar:  I’ve recommended 40 Acts for adults, but they also have a fantastic program for children. They’ve put together an activities calendar, much like an Advent calendar, for kids to mark the days of Lent. Each day has a simple assignment that focuses on being generous to others. Activities include feeding birds, calling grandparents, conserving energy, donating underused toys to a charity, and even baking cookies. (You can check out Becky’s 40 Acts calendar for her kiddos here.)

Easter Gifts from World Vision:  Celebrate the generosity of Lent and Easter with life-changing gifts for those in need. You can choose from over 100 gifts, including sponsorship (your kids can exchange letters to the child you sponsor), animals, clean water, clothing, school supplies, meals, and education for girls in danger of exploitation. Donating to a charity during Lent can be a fantastic way for your kids to give to those in need as well as learn about children around the world.

Sabbath Manifesto’s Unplug Challenge: The National Day of Unplugging has come and gone, but you can continue to experience the benefits of carving out a weekly timeout from technology to reconnect with your family, friends, and city. (I loved it!) For kids hooked on Netflix, the iPad/Pod/Phone, texting, or the computer (the average 8-18 year old spends seven and a half hours a day on multimedia devices), this is a great way to remember that harnessing their inner Laura Ingalls Wilder can be re-energizing, meaningful, and plain ol’ fun.

Have you celebrated Lent with your children? How did you experience Lent as a kid? Do you have any suggestions for activities? We love hearing from you!

P.S. I’m sorry for being M.I.A. from the blog lately. I started a fabulous new job a month ago, and it’s been a bit of a juggling act balancing it and this. But I think I got the hang of it. It’s nice to be back!

Images from World Vision.


posted in: Lent, Winter

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National Day of Unplugging


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I used to be very skeptical about fasting from media (smart phones, TV, internet, Facebook, even Kindles) during Lent. The curmudgeon in me didn’t see it as authentic and perhaps a little like cheating. Frankly, that was before I got my iPhone and it became a combination of entertainment, personal assistant, navigation system, date book, bookshelf, and babysitter all rolled up in one.

Recently, in a conversation with a friend, it hit me: just like with food we consume media. In some ways its influence on our lives is even more bodily than food, I feel naked if I don’t have my phone within arm’s reach. So it makes sense, like food, we would abstain from consuming media during Lent. This is a season of clearing the clutter in our lives to make room to hear God, and the constant demand of our phones and other devices certainly fits this category.

unplug-sign

So in keeping in the spirit of Lent, tomorrow Lisa and I will be participating in the National Day of Unplugging. It is a full 24-hours, from sundown on Friday, March 1 through sundown Saturday March 2, where we unplug all our devices to make room for more the important things. The day is a project of Sabbath Manifesto, an organization that encourages people to take a weekly day of rest, check out their awesome 10 principles of Sabbath here.

If fasting from media during all of Lent seems a little daunting to you, as it does to me, join us tomorrow evening in unplugging for just one day. Let us know what you will be doing with all your time apart from Twitter and your Kindle, although we won’t know because we won’t be checking the internet!

(Image via Sabbath Manifesto)


posted in: Lent, Recipes, Winter

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Lent Recipes, Part Two – Southwestern Soup


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Last week I started a series of vegetarian recipes for Lent. You can find my suggestions for vegetarian cookbooks here and last week’s post for Broccoli Gribiche here.

To continue, this week’s recipe comes from Mark Bittman’s cookbook How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. If you don’t own anything by Bittman you should no matter what your skill level in the kitchen. His recipes are consistently tasty, simple, and extremely adaptable, and this recipe is no exception. I love how quickly this soup comes together and how much flavor you get in such a short amount of time.

In my mind, after all the amazing vegetables, this soup is all about the garnishes. Below I have a fairly long list of possibilities, please treat these as suggestions using as few or as many (or all!) of them as you wish.

This soup, like most soups, is better the next day, so make extra and have it for lunch tomorrow!

southwestern-soup

Southwestern Soup

Adapted from Mark Bittman’s recipe in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder or 1 chopped chipotle chile (the canned kind in adobo sauce)

1 tablespoon fresh oregano or 2 teaspoons dried

1 chopped russet potato

1 cup corn (frozen is just fine)

1-15 oz. can black beans

3 chopped canned tomatoes or 1-15 oz. can diced tomatoes or 1 medium chopped fresh tomato

1 medium or 2 small zucchinis chopped

1 red bell pepper chopped

6 cups water or vegetable broth

salt and pepper

Garnishes

Crumbled queso fresco, feta cheese or grated cheddar

Lime wedges

Chopped cilantro

Diced red onion or green onions

Sliced radishes

Sour cream or crème fraiche

Pickled jalapenos

Thinly sliced raw cabbage or iceberg lettuce

Hot sauce

Tortilla chips

In a Dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. When hot add chopped onion and sauté until golden and tender about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, and oregano and cook for a minute or so until fragrant.

Add the vegetables (potato, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, bell pepper) and black beans and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the broth, bring to a boil and then lower heat to medium low to keep the soup at a simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Serve hot with any of the above garnishes.

Non-Lenten Variation:

Outside of Lent this stew would fantastic with some cooked shredded chicken breast or carnitas added in the last 5 minutes of simmering just to heat them through.

Kid-Friendly Variation:

My kids despise any sort of heat so I always use regular chili powder and add my heat to my own bowl with a good hot sauce or some pickled jalepenos. Also I have found they are much more likely to eat this soup if it is pureed and then topped with a large dollop of sour cream, a handful of grated cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips on the side.