What happens when you have a sister home for Christmas break ...

after her first semester of culinary arts study?

Chef Boy-ar-dee, of course!

Month of Thanks Day 7: Thanks be to God for Old-fashioned Sunday Night Dinner

Tonight, I am so thankful for a wonderful Family Sunday ... poor dh had to go up to the high school for open house, but the kiddoes and I spent the afternoon watching old movies (on Netflix, no less) ... a bit of football ... and making a full, old-style Sunday dinner ... baked ham and homemade applesauce, green beans almondine, buttered pasta ... the piece de resistance:  orange marmalade jam roll with bittersweet chocolate.

Dh declared it the best dinner I'm ever made!

Here's the recipe for the jam roll, and old standby in my baking repertoire that I haven't made in years!


Orange Marmalade Jam Roll smothered in Chocolate!
Ingredients:
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Powdered sugar (for generously dusting towel)
• 2/3 cup high quality orange marmalade
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbls butter
• 2 tbls powdered sugar
• 2 tbls boiling water (or hot strong coffee if want a stronger chocolate taste)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°. Line jelly roll pan, 15 1/2 × 101/2 × 1 inch, with cooking parchment paper.

Beat eggs in bowl with electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in granulated sugar. Beat in water and vanilla on low speed. Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into pan, spreading to corners.

Place marmalade in bowl and place above oven to slowly warm marmalade while cake is baking.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan and turn upside down onto towel generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove paper. Trim off stiff edges of cake if necessary. While hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end.

Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Unroll cake and remove towel. Beat marmalade slightly with fork to soften; spread evenly over cake. Roll up cake and place on serving platter.

Make chocolate glaze:  in microwavable cup, place chocolate chips and butter. Heat cup in microwave for 30-60sec.  Remove and stir till chips are melted.  Add powdered sugar and boiling water/coffee.  Stir till smooth .... drizzle over roll.

Enjoy!
 

Review: Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food & Fun

Alice Cantrell does it yet again!  First, she came out with Sewing with St. Anne ... a classic hand- and machine-sewing book for girls that I've used extensively with mine own lovely girls and recommend to others for teaching sewing.  Then a few years later, she wrote Tea and Cake with the Saints: A Catholic Young Lady's Introduction to Hospitality and the Home Arts.  These were both directed at the girls in the family -- sewing and cooking and welcoming others.  The books were replete with great explanations of HOW to do all these wonderful skills.  These were proof that you could teach 21st century girls how to embrace the good, the true and the beautiful.

But what about the boys in the family?

Introducing Tin Cups and Tinder: A Catholic Boy's Little Book of Fire, Food & Fun.  This volume proofs that boys, too, can be taught the good, the true and the beautiful! If attractive pictures/presentation are half-the-battle for hooking a young audience today, than Cantrell has won the war.  The book includes gorgeous pictures of antique camping and outdoor cooking equipment and beautiful pictures of the final products ... if that doesn't get the boys in your house chompin' at the bit to use this book ....

The book begins by explaining cooking in the kitchen as well as cooking outdoors.  She then follows that section with a section of amazing, boy-friendly recipes:  cornbread, pancakes, brownies, and hot chocolate mix to name just a few.  

For more hands-on fun, the boys are taught to sew -- simple hand-stitching that comes in handy for sewing on buttons.  But, Cantrell adds some fun sewing projects:  a pot holder, haversack and a pocket-sized sewing kit.  She also explains WHY boys should sew!  These are projects that teach useful skills while also giving the boys something useful to have. 

The final section deals with book-binding -- making a nature notebook and a portable plant press(to keep in the haversack the boy made in the previous section).  What better way to have boys off couches, away from the video games, and out into God's creation than to have them create their own nature journals?  And the plant press is an ingenious use of out-grown board books.

Scattered throughout this useful book are quotes from male saints as well as biographies of these saints that help guide our young men to His Kingdom.

I can't recommend this book enough -- it's so wonderful to find a useful, beautifully presented, practical guide to life skills for boys.  And it's Catholic to-boot.  What's not to love?  This book needs to be high on every parent's Christmas list for their boys (and girls could get quite a bit of good stuff out of it,too).

 

Favorite Godson ....

named Steve ...

can actually cook!  Here, he's helping his cousin make crepes ...

We love when relatives come to visit ....

Nurturing Creativity Daybook ... the week at a glance 05/24-29/2010

Here's this week's creativity in the heart of our home:

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program; the "Season-spanning Cardi" and the "Felted Fair-Isle Yarn Basket" should be up on the Knit Picks's site soon. I just finished "Memories of Eire" ... a vest in a gorgeous dark heathery green that was wonderful to knit.  I just have to finish drafting the pattern, and that will go out this week.  I'm putting the finishing touches on  "Fisherman's Jacket for the Boys" and will hopefully send that out at the end of the week.  I have a few other projects backed up .... and some submission out for approval. 
• more knitting:  I've opened a Ravelry store and started posting some of my designs -- some freebies and some for sale.  Check 'em out and see what you think....
• on the craft table: SEWING projects have still not gotten started but they WILL get done this week; String Bean and I need the fun skirts, dresses and capris we'll be sewing. 
• on the kitchen counter: we're trying to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables ... so this past weekend we made Celeste's famous beet salad (finally got the recipe from the dear woman!) and onion soup.  I'm going to take the greens from the beets and saute them in bacon grease (after I've fried-up crisp bacon) along with some grape-tomatoes and serve it all over whole-wheat thin spaghetti.  Doesn't that sound great?  With Kotch home for a while this summer .... we'll be having fun experimenting with food-stuffs for dinner this week ... 
• Greek festival is our end-of-the-week destination! Talk about nurturing creativity -- music, food, crafts, lots of great non-typical stuff to enliven our family conversations
• in the garden: we've had lots of rain 'round these parts and the garden is bursting -- all the transplants are going well and the seeds are popping up with lots of greenery and hints of later color. 
• more in the yard:  we're designing a modular tree house that we'll add to bit-by-bit to make a "castle for the kids". We've had to put the construction on hold with all the rain ... but we do have the railed-platform up and dh will be building the ladder on the screened-in porch to best the rain
• in the school-room: we'll continue thru the summer on a lower-gear with readin'-ritin'-rithmetic to ensure a smooth transition next Fall.  We'll enroll in the summer reading program at our library and be doing special projects throughout the summer (including taking a class or two down at a nearby farm).  Also, a group of homeschooled kids are getting together a version of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses".  All three little ones are in it ... and we'll be practicing all summer long.  String Bean will also, God willing, start piano this summer while the boys have started fencing.
• miscellaneous creative pursuits: our friend's dog finally went into heat and we're hoping to spend much of the summer visiting our future family pet!  Mini-schnauzers are beautiful and full of life (these will be raised in a house full of kids so will be very used to the active-ness of little ones) ... while being small enough so that even dh is fine about it!

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home?  

Nurturing Creativity Daybook ... the week at a glance

Last week over at Kind Conversations, I started a new daybook called "Nurturing Creativity" where I describe my day(s) and ways of nurturing creativity in my own home.

Now, let's be honest here ... there is no way I'm going to be able to keep up with a day-by-day listing of all the creative things we're doing around here.  If I did that, I wouldn't have time for all that nurturing I want to do ...

So, welcome to the week-at-a-glance version of NCD ....

• on my needles: I have just started another project for the Knit Picks Independent Designer Program;  the Season-spanning Cardi I was working on last week is ready to be pattern-drafted and sent off to KP!
• on the craft table: I have some sewing to do; we spent the weekend helping a dear friend make her aprons for her Dominican postulancy and that got String Bean and I plotting sewing projects -- skirts, tops and jumpers for summertim.
• on the kitchen counter: I have chicken thawing for making the only kind of chicken LegoManiac will eat:  MaryM's Clinkerdagger recipe.  I'm planning what we'll make to celebrate St. Louis Marie deMontfort on Wednesday, St. Catherine of Siena on Thursday and St. Joseph's Day on Saturday ... LOVE being Catholic!
• in the garden: I have seedlings coming up, transplanted azalea that needs to be nursed along, more tilling to get the front garden ready for flowers.  At least with the rain we had today, the ground is a bit easier to work
• in the school-room: String Bean and I are working on her Co-op History project on Martha Washington's contributions to the American Revolution -- we have till Wednesday to make her mob-cap, a petticoat for her skirt, baked goods to tantalize the audience, and a script to write and memorize.  We're all working on creative projects to surprise Dad on feast of St. Catherine of Siena -- she's Rick's patron saint this year and we've got some great ideas up our sleeves having to do with food, crafts and a bit of fun!

So what are you doing to nurture creativity in your home? 

BTW, my goal ... that is "my target" ... that is "my hope" ... is that every Monday I'll be posting a NCD-week at a glance to keep myself honest and ensure we're always nurturing creativity around here ....