Moroccan Lamb Tagine

It's possible that I promised this post to a friend in early October and am just getting to it now, oops.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite meals. Spiced coucous (or quinoa) with toasted slivered almonds, cinnamon (boil it with a whole cinnamon stick) and golden raisins.

Then top it with Lamb tagine, which is just a fancy way to say lamb stew. 

You can put whatever you want in it, I'm inspired by this recipe, ( I pinned it to my foodie board here)but I usually just put in salt, cumin, ginger, a bit of curry, sweet potatoes, and then either braise it in red wine or stock. At the end I stir in a bit of honey and top with pomegranate seeds.

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

I link to these awesome parties:

Monday: DIY Showoff,  Thrifty Decor Chick, Home Stories A to Z  Tuesday: Nest for Less,  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Centsational Girl Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style Thursday: House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue,  Crafty, Scrappy, Happy Friday:  Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello

Real Life - Messy Kitchen Counters

Just in case you wanted to see what my real life looks like midway through a 4 day weekend:)

We were taking down the rainbow paper snowflake mantle and putting up holiday decor, while also building with Magna tiles (our favorite toy).

I promise the counter is all cleaned off now:)

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

Age Appropriate Kitchen Jobs for Kids

A few of my favorite ways to interact with kids is in the kitchen, and I realized that what I let them do has really evolved as they grow up. All too often I hear that kids are allowed to do all sorts of things in preschool but at home we still baby them, so I make a conserted effort to find just the right jobs for them at home.

As soon as they can sit up - 18 months:

Mash bananas for Banana Bread

Mix or stir (with a huge mess)

Taste-test

1.5 - 3:

Scoop

Stir

Place cookies on a cookie sheet

Pour on sprinkles (use this method where a tupperware catches the extras!)

Kneed bread dough (see my challah recipe here)

Cut strawberries with an egg slicer (for strawberry shortcakes)

Use a juicer to squeeze lemons for lemonade or oranges

Assemble their own grilled cheese sandwich toppings

3-4:

Measure flour or sugar, leveling off the top

Count ingredients

Cut with a blunt edged knife

Peel Bananas

Turn the mixer or blender on or off

Spread frosting on a cake (see our construction machine birthday cake here)

Gather needed ingredients from the pantry

Shake a sealed Ziploc bag with meat and marinade in it

5-6:

Cut with a sharp knife with close supervision

Measure out all ingredients

Divide ingredients equally (ie. half in one bowl, half in the other)

Possibly read you the recipe

Gather all needed ingredients

Crack eggs

Separate eggs

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

I link to these awesome parties:

Sunday: I Heart Naptime, Nifty Thrifty Things, It's Overflowing Monday: DIY Showoff, Between Naps on the Porch, Thrifty Decor Chick, Home Stories A to Z, Evolution of Style Tuesday: Coastal Charm, Nest for Less,  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Bowl Full of Lemons,  Centsational Girl , Primitive and Proper  Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style, Organize and Decorate Thursday: House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue,  Crafty, Scrappy, Happy, 52 Mantels Friday: Making Lemonade, Blissful and Domestic, One Artsy Mama, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, At the Picket Fence

Future Architects

You know how I'm an architect-turned-stay at home mom, right?

Well, my love for design and construction is rubbing off on my kids!

Yep, my son is pretty into construction machines (which is totally related to architecture!), and I can see some future architects in the making.

Thankfully, their love of building with MagnaTiles (our favorite toy ever) encouraged Clementine, or Spunky Stork, a company specializing in organic onesies and tees,  to offer me these awesome shirts.

I tried to get a pic with all three kids, but that was SO not happening:)




I also love the other Spunky Stork shirts, and might even need to get a "Muggle" one for a kid or two, since I'm a huge Harry Potter fan:)



The future architect onesie can be found here.

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

I received these shirts for free and my opinions and children are totally my own:)

Lamb Sliders

Because sometimes I feel as if I'm writing a cooking blog,

but honestly  with 3 meals a day to prepare, keeping a record of the hits (and occasional misses, hello homemade LaraBars) is just keeping it real around here.

These were a HUGE hit.

Maybe it's the diminutive size, but who doesn't like a slider?

I just mixed some ground lamb with herbs de provence (you can find it in fancy spice aisles) and grilled 'em up.

Oops, a bit too much flame:)

 I also grilled the buns, you know, to be all fancy-pants.

Then I served them with tomato, cucumber, and TJ's yogurt raita (no need to make that myself).

My friend Elke also liked them even without the yogurt sauce, so there you go. Yummy either way.

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

Groceries in a Wagon

Just in case you have a hard time juggling your groceries with say, that crawling baby in the background...

I use an awesome meant-for-the-garden Gorilla cart, to get my groceries out of the car, up the elevator (I know how lucky I am to have one of those!) and into the kitchen.

Back in the day, when we lived in the tiny 2-bedroom bungalow where our son slept in a closet, we used this for trips to the farmer's market. Now, we've gone all pseudo-suburban, so it's up and down inside our house now:)

Jessica

Thanks for stopping by! I love to keep in touch. 

    

I link to these awesome parties:

Monday: DIY Showoff,  Thrifty Decor Chick, Home Stories A to Z  Tuesday: Nest for Less,  My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Centsational Girl Wednesday: Savvy Southern Style Thursday: House of Hepworths, the 36th Avenue,  Crafty, Scrappy, Happy Friday:  Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving sweet friends!



From my family to yours, I want you to know that I am grateful for each and every one of you who read this blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you.



Now let's eat!



And just because if I wait on these until next week I will have totally missed the fall/harvest/pumpkin season, here are a crazy amount of pics form our trip to Ardenwood Historic Farm in mid-October. Yup, I'm on it like that:)

Hand-churned ice cream.

To get to the actual corn-picking we had to walk super, crazy-pants far...

Fun in the corn field.

Then we had to walk super, crazy-pants far BACK again.

Hike up a hay mountain,

We told them they could get any pumpkin as long as they could lift it.

Turns out they are stronger than we thought:)

Jessica