a hippie with a minivan

a playdough day…

For a while now colin has been wanting me to make a new batch of playdough… Khéna is now at the age where play dough doesn’t look like food as much anymore so this morning I finally decided to do it…

I made two batches… one blue and one green… both with a vanilla scent…

here is the recipe I use…

1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tarter
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp vanilla extract (I use the cheap clear stuff)
1 cup flour
colouring

Mix in a pan on the stove over medium heat until thick…

The boys watched while I made it and then ran down stairs to get the play dough toys while it cooled…

They sat down at about 9:30… and their imaginations just soared…

Khéna smashed and bashed and pressed and mashed… Colin made toast with butter, pizza and Anakin Skywalker…

Xavier made cookies and cakes and spaghetti and meatballs… I cut a kleenex box and they had an “oven” to cook things in…

Cookies

at noon I asked them to put it away while we ate lunch…

After lunch they went and played in the snow for about an hour and a half and then got inside and soon after got the playdough out again and played for another 2 hours with it…

I have a feeling that we will be playing with playdough quite often in the next few days…

Vanilla… day 4…

just wanted to give an update on the vanilla…

the day after I made it it was already changing colour and everyday it has been getting darker… now… just 4 days after, it looks like this and the vanilla smell is starting to take over the alcohol smell…

I just know that it is going to be a treat…

and Katey, I had read that you can just replenish it with more alcohol if you leave the vanilla beans in it…

I am definitaly going to be trying brandy for that… or maybe more rum…

satisfying days…

There are some days that are just satisfying…

This morning we were up at 6 but not sleepy… The boys had breakfast and I surfed the net a bit while I drank my coffee… then I started on the kitchen and the boys cleaned up the floors to make sweeping easier… then headed in their rooms and did their beds… without me asking…

At about 8:30, Xavier decided that they should go play outside so they brought all of their stuff into the kitchen so that I could help Khéna and Colin get dressed… and they headed out into the back yard and played..

and of course that meant that I could finish the kitchen, make my own bed, start a load of laundry and sweep and wash the floors without being interrupted…

They came in at about 10:15 and we sat down and did the magic trick that Annie shared on her blog and they all took a few turns each doing it and figuring out why and how it works and then did a few dissolving experiments… finishing with a baking soda and vinegar “explosion”…

It is now just after 11am and the house is clean, Khéna is napping on me and the older boys are playing downstairs and laughing… Supper tonight was made yesterday so all I have to do is heat it up this evening and I might make a bread to eat with it this afternoon…The day is not near to being finished but I just know that this mood will continue.. it is just one of those days…

and days like this just make the rough days all worth it…

mmmm… vanilla…

If you bake a lot (like me)… and love vanilla (like me)…

Then you go through a lot of vanilla…

I know that I do…

So while I was Stumbling around last week I saw a recipe on how to make your own Vanilla extract… It was so easy that I just memorized how and today I bought the ingredients…

I can’t wait to see the results!

Vodka, vanilla beans and a bit of rum… (I used 6 beans for 2 cups)

pour the vodka into a mason jar…

add a bit of dark rum (if you have some) it adds a bit of sweet…

admire the vanilla beans…

split the vanilla beans…

look at the vanilla goodness….

halve them…

add the beans to the vodka…

and place in a dark cupboard and shake for about 30 seconds everyday for about 8 weeks… until ready….

Update: Here is what it looks like after a few weeks… and after 6-7 weeks I was able to start using it and haven’t looked back!

Also… I used Vanilla beans bought from my local grocery store which are highly over priced. I have found that there are better and much cheaper ways to buy Vanilla in bulk (I have bought through “organic-vanilla.com” based in the USA and “vanillafoodcompany.ca” based in Canada) so that this vanilla extract comes to not much more than the price of the alcohol used.

Chocolate Chip Cookies…

Simon has been wanting me to make some chocolate chip cookies… so when he asked me again today I got right to it…

I wanted to find a new cookie since though I love the ones I used to make I also like trying new one… the last ones I tried were too cakey.. so this time I went to foodgawker and typed in chocolate chip and ended up here…

Then we choose the first one that looked like the chocolate chip cookie that we have been craving…

To my surprise it ended being the Alton Brown Recipe for “the chewy” (recipe below)

So I made them… omg they are amazing!!!

The dough is just perfect… and you can see right away that they are going to be chewy…

After chilling the dough I scooped them out and then put them back in the fridge for a few minutes… then put them in the oven…

For so many years I have had an oven that we could not see into and I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to watch things bake…

The boys are discovering that pleasure for the first time…

A great chewy perfect chocolate chip cookie!!!

Ingredients

* 1 cup unsalted butter
* 2 1/4 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 egg yolk
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift or mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

Pour the melted butter in a bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill the dough, then scoop onto baking sheets.(I used a 1/8 cup measuring cup)

They really get the thumbs up!