birdsandtrees

In the kitchen...

I know I said I'd share photos of the classroom, but it desparately needs cleaning and that takes some time! So I promise the photos are coming...just not quite yet!  I thought, in the meantime, I'd share what's going on in our baking and cooking world.  Because we've had some really good things going on. 

Like....

1.  I made this chocolate cake this past weekend for my friend's baby shower.  It's Beatty's Chocolate Cake, and the icing is the dark chocolate icing from the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook.  It was delicious - if you need a chocolate cake recipe, definitely try this one out!  Because I made the cake I was able to use my sweet little cake bunting that I got from this store on ebay.  I bought the kit (which is cheaper than buying them already made)...I see me making many more of these in the future!

2.  Butternut Squash Soup: I've made four batches of this soup in the past month and I'm still not tired of it!  Next time I make it, I'm going to put some in bags and freeze them.  With some homemade croutons and a dollop of sour cream, life tastes pretty darn good.

3.  James just recently made roast chicken with vegetables.  He put some of those leftover homemade croutons (from our soup) at the bottom of the roasting pan, and all the juices of the chicken ran into them.  SO good.  We loosely follow this recipe for what to stuff the chicken with, and then we just use whatever vegetables are in season.   

4.  Caramel Popcorn with Vanilla and Cinnamon: I don't remember how I found this recipe, but I've made it three times now, and it's really good.  I make plain popcorn, then mix in this mixture of brown sugar, maple syrup (the real stuff), vanilla and cinnamon.  Then you bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.  Next time I make it I'm going to add some cashews to the mix.  It's a great snack for a special treat in the fall. 

Up next in the kitchen this fall: Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Cupcakes for school next week, some curry recipes, Shepherd's Pie, Steak and Guinness Pie, and Beef Bourgignon.  Ooh and maybe a Winter Panzanella. 

Spice Cabinet Makeover

Since I took that long blog break, I have lots of photos to show you of our home - we've been working on it and making it our own since this summer.  Some of my favorite things about this house are the small details - the mail slot next to the front door, the tile around the fireplace, the rounded doors, and the one I want to show you today - the spice cabinet.  I'm sure at one time it was used as a place to keep your ironing board, but Abby (who we bought the house from) kept her spices in there and I wanted to do the same.  It's the little things like a spice cabinet that make me want to buy a house!

So this summer, while we were working on big projects like the schoolroom, I wanted to work on small things like the spice cabinet. 

Here's the before:

And the after:

Ta da!  Matching jars and labels and everything!  I love this kind of stuff! I bought the jars from World Market, and the printable-labels came from Martha.  And why can't a plate hang in your spice cabinet?!

Now when a recipe calls for a spice, I get just a little too excited.  It's the little things in life, right? 

Next up for show-and-tell is the schoolroom...stay tuned! 

Understood Betsy

This is my fourth year of having our little school in our house.  Every year it can be a challenge as I try to come up with new curriculum, new subjects to study, new authors to discover, and new books to read.  My favorite of all of those of course is finding good, living books to read aloud to the students. 

Our first chapter book read-aloud this year was Understood Betsy.  I can't remember where I heard about this one, but I'm so glad I stumbled across it.  This book was beautiful and one that I will always remember (much like this one).  It's the story of a girl named Betsy, who is sent off to live with her Putney cousins at their farm.  It makes you want to fill your house with geraniums and wear a gingham apron (the schoolteacher in the book wore one...maybe I should get started on one!).

One day at school, we decided to make some tea cookies to nibble on while we read the book.  I'd been wanting to try a recipe from this cookbook, and the Lemon Tea Cookie recipe seemed perfect (lucky for you there's another blogger out there that posted the whole recipe).  The recipe was easy and perfect to do with kids.  There's an icing that goes on top, but I was thinking some raspberry jam would be nice on top, too!  Perfect for an afternoon tea and alongside a good book. 

"That room was full to the brim of something beautiful, and Betsy knew what it was.  Its name was Happiness."  

- Understood Betsy