Getting Ready

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Today my two oldest girls worked really hard and fast so they could help me with these:

This is a beautiful set of silver that I am borrowing for a little bit and I am going to use them for Thanksgiving dinner.


I am so excited


Aren’t they pretty, I love the look of real silver, it makes the place setting so pretty and special.


My girls were so excited to polish them up to make our Thanksgiving table special.


What special item to do set your table with?

My Newest Favorite Kitchen Tool

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Last week I bought a new blender, something that I have been wanting for a long time. I had a pretty good blender before, however I wanted to be able to do green smoothies and most blenders can’t handle kale, spinach and chard. I have wanted to get a Blendtec blender for almost a year, but had a hard time forking over the money. While I was shopping last Friday at Costco Blentec was doing a road show and I stopped to watch and ended up buying one.

I have really loved my blender, I think I have used it at least twice everyday if not more. It can do some many things and is easy to use and clean up.


One thing that really sold me on this blender was its ability to grind grains.

I have a wheat grinder, it has two big stones and weighs about 40 pounds, so I only get it out when need to and I grind a bunch of grain at a time. The thing about grains is that the second they are cracked or ground they start to lose vital nutrients. If flour is stored in the freezer it help slow that process, but I never had enough room to store my flour in the freezer. I have loved this blender because it is quick and easy to just grind what I need when I need it.


This morning I ground a cup of rye into flour so I could add it to my sourdough start.
(sorry the picture is so weird looking, the light wasn’t do good in my kitchen this morning)


The blender is pre-programed for almost anything you could want, and yes it does make a really yummy soft serve ice cream.


Mostly I use this blender for smoothies. I really like my smoothies. I have a hard time eating breakfast, I am not hungry in the mornings and the thought of eating oatmeal or pancakes makes me a little sick. Typically in the morning I eat a smoothie, and I would go through blenders like crazy, most blenders out there aren’t made to take blending frozen fruits and ice everyday, I easily would buy a new blender every year if not a little more. My Blendtec blender comes with a 7 year warranty, I figure it can handle my smoothie addiction.

I like my smoothies yogurt based, the benefits of yogurt are huge also the fat and protein in yogurt give my smoothie staying power so I don’t become hungry before lunch time. I thought I would share one of my typical smoothies. My smoothies change from day to day depending on my mood and what fruits I have available.

First I start with a cup of homemade whole milk yogurt.


Then a cup and a half of frozen fruit. Today I picked blueberries. Blueberry are very nutritious and full of anti-oxidants and other macronutrients.


I drizzle a little Agava Nectar or honey. Only a little, even the “good” sweeteners need to be used in moderation.

I also added about a cup of fresh grapes, they add a nice sweet crisp flavor and are very good for you.

At the very end I add a little coconut oil, about a teaspoon. Coconut oil is very good for you too, if you would like to read more about benefits of coconut oil go here.


All I have to do at this point is hit the “smoothie” button and the blender does all the work. I don’t even have to open the blender and push down the fruit.

(here is my new love at work)


The finished product, a tall glass of yummy goodness that has all the servings of fruit I need for the day, plus a serving of dairy.

Another thing I love about this blender is its easy clean up.


I just add a little water to the bottom and hit the “pulse” button a couple of time and it is completely rinsed out.


At this point I dump the water out, give it a quick rinse in the sink and it is clean. At the end of the day I do put it in the dish washer, everything is dishwasher safe.


One of my pet peeves about blenders is the cleaning. Having to take apart everything and cleaning the blade, trying not to lose the rubber seal, then trying to find the seal when I am ready to use it again.

Well this little wonder blender is all one piece.

It all goes, blade, rubber seal and all into the dishwasher.
love that!


If you read this far you probably feel as if you are reading and infomercial.
Sorry.
I just love this blender, it is my new favorite thing, and I wanted to tell you all about it.

Join me next friday for “Favorite Things Friday”

It’s Working!

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My oldest daughter has struggled for years with reading. She has always on the lowest levels of where she “should” be. When I decided last year to take her out of public school and give her the one on one attention that she really needed, reading was one thing I really worried about. I am not a trained teacher or specialist, how was I ever going to help her? Would I do more harm than good? Would she get even farther behind than she already was? I struggled with this question a lot and after a lot of soul searching I came to a conclusion and you can read about it here.
This weekend Dadzoo and I took all the kids to the book store to pick out a book to read. They had been working on some goals and all of them had done an amazing job and as a reward they got a book. Punk #1 picked out her all time favorite book. They funny thing about this book is that she had never really read it all the way through, in fact, when she had tried to read it before it was way too hard and she had to give up. A year ago when she was in school she belonged to a reading group and they had picked this particular book and she loved listening to the other students read the story, she talked about it all the time, however when it came to her turn to do the reading she couldn’t, and so her teacher switched her to another group and she was devastated! She was able to borrow the book from her teacher so we could read with her at home and honestly she couldn’t read it at all. When we started to homeschool the book was returned and while she never finished it, she talked about it all the time.
When we were paying for our books Punk #1 confessed to Dadzoo that she was afraid that it would still be too hard for her to read, he told her that he was sure it would be fine and that we would help her if she needed it.

Today when it was time for reading I assigned her two chapters in her new book and while she was in the middle of her reading she blurted out “Hey Mom, I CAN READ THIS! It is kind of easy!”

I said a silent prayer of thanks…..

Thanksgiving

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Thanksivng is my favorite holiday, I love everything about it. This year I am hosting a small Thanksgiving feast for my parents and grandparents. I am nervious and excited. It isn’t my first time doing a Thanksgiving dinner, a couple of years ago I had Dadzoo’s parents over, but for some reason I am more nervious about this dinner than I was last time. Anyway I am excited and planning my menu and tablescape.

What are you favorite Thanksgiving traditions and dishes?