Broccoli-Cheddar Chowder

This is one of those fast ones that you can throw together at the last minute.  Super good and our family gobbles it up.  I think it came from a Better Homes magazine years ago, but can't recall.  It's also in the Kurtti Family Cookbook for those of you who have that.  You can use homemade stock instead of the water/bouillon if you like.  Salt as desired.

Broccoli-Cheddar Chowder

1 cup water

1 medium carrot, diced (I always add a few more)

1 (10oz.) pkg. frozen broccoli/cauliflower mix

3 c. milk (alternate fine)

1/4 c. flour

1/2 t. chicken bouillon

1/4 t. pepper

3 c. shredded cheddar cheese or mixture of kinds

In a pan (Dutch oven), bring water to boiling and add carrots and frozen vegetables.  Cook covered for about 5 minutes, until vegetables are tender.  Do not drain.  In a small bowl, stir 1 c. milk into the flour and add to the vegetables in pan.  Add remaining milk, bouillon and pepper (and salt if needed).  Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  Cook 1 more minute.  Add cheese, stirring until melted.  Serve with homemade bread.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

This a super easy, but fabulous soup.  Lots of flavor and even better with some crusty, homemade bread.  I combined a recipe from our Kurtti family cookbook  (Hungarian Mushroom Soup by Rich and Julie Schaaff) and one that I found in the book Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth.  This soup works really well in a Dutch oven so that you can brown the mushrooms really good, which adds to the flavor.  Dairy free milks and alternate thickeners work fine too.  This is the only mushroom recipe my picky kids will eat because I chop the mushrooms really small.

Homemade Mushroom Soup

2 lbs. mushrooms, cleaned and sliced, or chopped finely in a food processor
1 small sweet onion, diced
1 T. butter
2 T. paprika (the smoked kind is better if you can find it, WinCo has a spicy one in their bulk section that is great too- just use a pinch if using the spicy!)
1 tsp. dill
1 T. balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
2 c. chicken or vegetable broth
1 c. milk with 2 T. flour whisked in
sour cream to garnish

Saute mushrooms and onions together with butter in your Dutch oven until browned.  This will take a while to get all the moisture out of the mushrooms.  Add paprika, dill and vinegar and stir on med/high heat.  Add broth and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add milk/flour mixture and simmer just until thickened.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream if you like and your sourdough crusty bread.

Christmas letter 2014

Our day of joy is here again, With love and peace and song;

Come, let us join th'angelic strain With voices clear and strong.

Glory to our God, we sing, Glory to our Lord and King;

Peace, good will with all abide This holy Christmas tide. A.L. Skoog, 1892

Once again I write to you, wishing you glad tidings of great joy, that our Savior has come to this sin darkened world. In this ever changing world we live in, it seems that nothing is for certain. What comfort we have that Jesus doesn't change, even if mankind would like to change, eliminate, silence and pervert His teachings and truths.

This past year we've been up to a whole lot of busyness. The we-have-5-kids-now kind of busyness, not the extracurricular style of busyness. Which means we stay home most of the time, and have much more chaos and disarray than we've ever experienced before. This also means more funny toddler sayings, more cuddles and singing before naps, more dishes and laundry, and more time together.

Baby Celeste Marjorie was born on Valentine's Day, and she's been our little Miss Sunshine each day. The kids love to dote on her, and she's finally getting old enough they can actually play with her. As I'm writing this, they are taking her on a trip (with all their dolls and stuffed animals) and are staying overnight at a motel. Her middle name is my Grandma Staudinger's name, for those who don't know.

Luke (9) likes building things, fixing things, inventing things and creating things. He's full of projects and ideas, and loves his Legos. He reads all sorts of books, but especially likes mysteries and comic books.

James (7) loves to make people laugh. He's into zebras and the color turquoise and climbing and jumping around. He enjoys drawing and learning about animals. He's a Lego lover too.

Elise is now 5 and started kindergarten at home this fall. She is learning to write her letters and slowly learning to read as well. She loves all things sparkly, pink, girly and princess-y. She's quite thrilled with her baby sister and is waiting patiently until Celeste can play with her.

Isaac is our super cute 3 year old. He is full of randomness and keeps us laughing. His latest antic is to fake a cough in hopes that he doesn't have to help unload the dishwasher. It doesn't work, but he still tries it every time just in case it will. “I have a toff (cough), hack, hack” in a very sick sounding voice. He recently told Luke, “We can share this toy. You bought it and I will play with it.” He thought that was a totally fair trade.

We did make it up to Canada this summer, but ended up having at least one of us sick the whole trip. We even ended up coming home early so that Greg could rest before having to go back to work. Traveling with 5 kids isn't exactly “fun”, but we enjoyed seeing friends and family again.

Love & God's Peace, Rachel & Greg, Luke, James, Elise, Isaac& Celeste

Chicken Coconut Curry Soup

This is one of those fabulous recipes that once you have it, you just have to keep making it.  And if you made it for company, they'll be asking for the recipe for sure.  I got it from my friend Donna who got it from her sister-in-law Brenda who got it from....I've passed it on to many people and today am passing it on to you.  Even if you haven't experienced curry before, or haven't liked it in the past, you will love this.

As with all of my soups, I always double the vegetables.  Lots and lots of carrots.  I also grate them rather than chopping into matchsticks just because it's faster.  This one is gluten-free and dairy free and is good with quinoa instead of the rice too.  Use canned chicken if you want.  Use uncooked rice if you want, just simmer a bit longer.  It's all okay.  It'll be good no matter what.  Well, almost no matter what.  Too much curry paste can ruin it.  Or if you buy another brand and it's way spicier than the usual, that can cause a spice dilemma as well.  So, add a dab, stir and taste.  Repeat.

Chicken Coconut Curry Soup

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped – except for a few matchsticks for garnish

1/2 onion,  chopped finely

1 red bell pepper, chopped finely – except for a few thinly sliced pieces for garnish

1 cup cooked chicken meat, chopped

1 cup cooked rice

2 tablespoons red curry paste (if you like it less spicy, just use 1 tablespoon)

3 tablespoons brown sugar

13.5 oz can Asian coconut milk or cream (unsweetened)

21 oz chicken broth (roughly 1.5 cans of Swansons brand)

Optional:  2 tablespoons fish sauce and a few sprigs of cilantro

Note:  Reserve some of the coconut milk, carrots, and red bell pepper (and cilantro) for optional garnish.

Directions:

In a medium  sauce pan, heat olive oil on medium heat and cook chopped onions, carrots, and red bell pepper for approximately 5 minutes.  Add curry paste, brown sugar, chicken, rice, and fish sauce stirring and sauteing everything until curry paste is completely incorporated (approx. 2-3 minutes).  Pour chicken broth and coconut milk into the pan and give it a good stir for a half minute.  Reduce heat to medium and allow the soup to cook for 15-20 minutes.  Serve with a spoonful of coconut milk added on top with a few matchstick carrots and a slice of red bell pepper for garnish. Enjoy!

Full recipe: http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/01/chicken-coconut-curry-soup/

Christmas traditions and what happened to Santa Claus

As a new parent, you wonder what traditions to start with your family, and which ones to ingnore.  We had some trial and error choices, but also some good ones that we've adapted over the years.  Holiday traditions seem to be one where I still feel kind of lost.  Should we try to do traditional things (whatever they may be), or should we make up our own traditions or should we just wing it each year? I think we do more of the last one, but I try to have some things traditional so we have some memories of doing *something* special.

I was just talking with a friend, and she mentioned that even if you only do some things once or twice in a child's life, they can still view it as a tradition if they felt it impacted them that much.  Which makes it easier on the parents.  You don't have to do it all!

With Christmas coming, I still don't have our traditions figured out.  And that's okay.  I guess (trying to convince myself here.)  As our home and family dynamics change, so will our traditions.  The main thing being focused on celebrating our Lord's birth, however that may be.  Greg isn't attached to any traditions, so it's more me who wants things *memorable* and the same year after year.

When we have no immediate family nearby (my sister who lives the closest is either committed to her in-laws or her husband has been crab fishing from Thanksgiving-February or they've only been up to doing something with their immediate family), it leaves us in a quandary.  No matter what we do, it doesn't seem right to me.  We've tried joining other families and that just felt awkward.  We've tried staying home and that felt empty.  We actually spent the first many years of our marriage travelling to our family, just to be a part of something bigger.  Now that we have 5 kids, we can't be just jetting off to Canada or Arizona or Florida as we had in the past, so we'll have to figure this stuff out.

Last year was our first year of just staying home (I was 7 months pregnant with Celeste and she had been breech and finally turned the right way on Christmas Eve night, after a Chiropractic adjustment), so I wasn't up to travelling anywhere.  It ended up being just like any other day, and that was rather disappointing.  I know my little family here is enough, but how do I make it special, if that's how it's going to be?

Our church also doesn't have a service on Christmas (unless it's on a Sunday), which also makes me feel rather empty.  Isn't that the most important thing about Christmas?  Just because it hasn't been done in the past, doesn't mean it isn't a good thing to start doing!  I think we'll make sure to get to a service this year, even if it means driving a ways.

One tradition we tried, but nixed this past year was the Santa thing.  We never really totally bought into it too much, but did have stockings for the kids and filled them for Christmas morning.  We open our gifts Christmas Eve, so it was a fun thing to do.  Until the kids started spending more and more time each year wondering about this Santa.  They knew that Santa isn't real, he's just a guy dressed up, but how did their stockings get full?  And how did he know to put almost the same thing in them each year?  And teaching the littler kids about it...how mysterious.  They would spend hours pondering these things, even though I usually minimized it and tried to redirect their conversation.  This went on for a few years, but last year at lunch one day I had had enough.  The whole reason for Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birth, and here they were spending all of their days wondering about Santa.  So I told them, "Dad and I fill your stockings after you go to bed."  And that was then end of that.  The rest of the season passed blissfully and this year is the same.  I even heard one of them tell Celeste, "Dad & Mom will fill your stocking on Christmas Eve with good things for you to find on Christmas morning."  It's been so nice!  They get a new toothbrush, a mandarin orange, a candy cane and a few chocolates.  I've done toys in the past and they've gotten tossed over the shoulder in search of more.  So, now I just keep it simple.

And one gift per kid too.  They get gifts from grandparents and some aunts and uncles, so one gift from us each is plenty.  This year I was able to find all I needed from the local antique stores (think vintage character items), so I hope they'll be happy.  I always wonder if I should buy them exactly what they want, or what I think will be a good thing for them, and have settled on the latter.  Something to learn and grow with, but is fun too is usually my direction to go in.  Greg insisted on keeping the bar low, as he says each year you'll have to raise it, so why go all out?  I agree.  With more children, we don't need more gadgets and gizmos that turn into junk after a short while anyhow.

I've reduced baking to 3 kinds of treats too.  As a family, our favorites are peppermint bark, baklava and Finnish prune tarts.  If we want more, we'll have to get them somewhere else.  Usually people are baking way too much and trying to get rid of them pretty readily!

We also like to go to the Journey to Bethlehem every now and then.  It's a very well done reenactment of the title.  We've done ZooLights one year and hope to try a different one at the Portland International Raceway (a drive through one)  someday.  Sometimes just looking at the fancy houses in town is enough too.

So, that's my thoughts for tonight.  I love Christmas, but still am not sure what to do about much of it!

Luke turns 9

Having cake in his pajamas

So this big guy is now 9.  He actually had his birthday in May, but I'm still late at updating.  Every year I tell him that he can't turn another year older, but he still does.  He's big enough now that I can hardly remember him as that tiny little baby he once was.  He's also moved past little boy stage, and now is getting into big boy territory.  In this past year he has matured so much.  It makes me giddy with excitement (he takes out the garbage to the road and does dishes proficiently!) but it's also hard on a mama's heart.

I don't want to brag, but sometimes I can't help it and since this is about him, I'm going to!  It's actually kind of  a mixed bag, because all of Luke's good qualties are those that often get overlooked in our busy, "look at me" world.  They are things like his thoughtfulness, gentleness, patience, a great listener, a respectful leader (not pushy).  I feel so blessed that we have such a responsible young man growing up, and can't wait to see his personality shine through more and more.

He loves doing projects and crafts.  Inventing things, fixing things, refurbishing things and improving things in one way or another.  He soaks up information from books, his Dad, myself and whoever is teaching/talking at the moment.  He loves listening in on adult conversations to learn something new.  I remember doing that as a kid too, and so totally understand it (although it can be kind of annoying if a conversation is private).

Reading is his other favorite pasttime.  He can remember what book he reads information in, and can usually go straight to the book and page to find the information he is recalling.  It helps that he's read books over and over and over again.  He does read super fast too, so likely misses a lot of information so gets new info each time!  He likes mysteries, animal stories, space information, how-to's most of all.  We've been getting more audio books which have been a fun change.  

I think he's finally outgrowing Thomas the train.  I didn't think he ever would!  He's been in love with him since that first pair of shoes when he was 18 months old.  He still loves trains, and wants a career in transportation (either an engineer, pilot, truck driver or something like that).  They all appeal to him, so he's not sure what he'd like the most.

Here's a selfie he took.  He likes to use the camera to show me things he builds or how clean a room he's been cleaning is.  He usually takes 100 pictures where 2 or 3 would have been sufficient!

Anyhow, Greg and I were just talking about how Luke is such a blessing in our family, in yet because he's not the "squeaky wheel", his attributes often get overlooked.  He needs us to draw him out more, but there's a gold mine in there when we do!

He even came face to face with a young buck the other day in our driveway and wasn't hardly scared.  He ran out to check the mail and a deer happened to be walking through our yard at the exact time.  They both scared each other, but he kept on running to get the mail.  The deer bounded off, but he said they came within a couple feet of each other.  He thought it was rather exciting!

We love you so much, Luke Wesley!