Break Dancing Jack

The Yummiest Pumpkin Pie

We've been making many many pumpkin foods as of late. But our favorite is for sure this pumpkin pie recipe!!

Filling (from The Pumpkin Cookbook)
1 pumpkin, about 1 1/2 pounds
1 cup cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup maple syrup
4 tbs spelt flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Cook the pumpkin. I cut it in half and bake in a glass baking dish, face down in a bit of water. It takes about an hour on 350. Once pumpkin is cooked, scoop out seeds and throw away. Then scoop the flesh away from the skin and process in a food processor, blender or I sometimes just use my kitchen aid mixer.

2. In a bowl combine pumpkin, cream, eggs, maple syrup, flour and spices and beat until evenly combined.

For the crust I use the Incredibly Good and Easy Pie Crust from Wholesome Homecooking.
1 1/4 c spelt flour
1/8 c maple syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 c butter (I have accidentally doubled the butter before..talk about fabulous!)
2 oz cream cheese

In a bowl, whisk together flour, sweetener and salt. In a mixer, beat butter and cream cheese together well, scraping sides of bowl once or twice. Add flour mixture to butter/cheese mixter in mixer bowl. Combine at medium low until crumbly, like coarsse cornmeal. Scrape down bowl and mix at medium high until dough forms large clumps, about 30 seconds. Transfer dough to a greased pie plate. Pat out with the palm of your hand evenly. Distribute up the sides of the plate.

Pour in pumpkin mixture. Bake on 400 for 30 minutes.

We like to buy some heavy whipping cream, whip it in the mixer then add to the pie before eating :) Enjoy!!

Cookies

Soraya's big birthday bash is next week. I can't believe she is 3!!

She is super excited. She had to make it through Jack, Mommy and Gus' birthday parties before getting to hers. We took her to a party store to pick out her plates. Going in she said she wanted Blues Clues. But after considering Little Einsteins, she chose Cinderella. Just could resist :)

So everytime I ask her what she wants to eat at her party she says "a cookie" which sounds a lot like turkey. Soraya hasn't ever been much of a cake fan, so we are going with it.

Her birthday is on Wednesday so we are having our neighbors over with their 3 girls, Maysun, Adelaide, and Imogene. We are having a taco bar and the much requested peanut butter cookie (without any refined sugars or flours of course :)

Then on Saturday all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are coming up for a grand birthday brunch with a giant chocolate chip cookie (no refined flours or sugars once again :)

So here are some pics of us practicing our cookie making :)

Apple Orchard

I took the kids to an apple orchard a few days ago. We went with a friend Julie and her son Trevor. We walked up the the older gentleman in charge, each of us with a one year old on our hip, me holding Soraya's hand and Julie being 8 months pregnant. So the gentleman just looked at us...so I said, "We are wondering about the pick your own apples" and he just looked at us quite perplexed...so I said, "Can we pick our own apples?" And he gaves us a concerned look again and asked how we thought we'd pick our own with the babies around (meanwhile, there are tons of already picked apples on the table behind him). I said, "oh, we will figure it out thats no problem. We have strollers and back packs..we are good...so how do we pick our own apples.

So the man gave us our bags and proceeded to explain which trees were ready to be picked. They had Johnathon apples, the best for applesauce making, and Ira red, red delicious, and yellow delicious.

We had a wonderful time picking apples. After awhile Jack was down walking around, getting covered in the dew covered freshly cut grass, as you can see in the picture he dropped his apple quite a few times :) Soraya loved it and didn't want to leave (as usual). After awhile Jack was down walking around, getting covered in the dew covered freshly cut grass, as you can see in the picture he dropped his apple quite a few times :)

The next day we had apples fried in butter with cinnamon for breakfast and applesauce as a snack. Tonight will be an apple crisp per Chad's request :)

My Man

I don't really have much to say...nor much time to write anymore. But all I can say is it just doesn't get any cuter that this :)

The best little girl a mommy could ask for

I have the absolute best little girl a mommy could ask for. I had terrible neck pain the last few days, went to the chiropracter and was feeling better. Took the kids to the YMCA today, and while there it felt like I got a pinched nerve in my neck. My vision got all blurry and then came the headache.

We got home and everyone fed and I said let's go upstairs Soraya and get Jack ready for his nap. She said, then I can watch Sesame Street! I said, well actually you are going to go night-night when Jack does so that mommy can lay down too. I have a terrible headache. She said ok. Once upstairs she says, "mommy, if your neck hurts you should go back to the doctor. You know who will be there? Colin's daddy and he will make your head feel all better." (Our good friend Colin's dad is our chiropractor)

So I proceed to go in all the bedrooms (including mine) and shut the windows and close the blinds. I hear Soraya in her room say to Jack, "It's night night time buddy." She then starts cleaning up all of her toys. Jack pulled one back off the shelf and she got upset. So I went and got Jack and told him we were going to clean up his toys then he was going to bed. Then next thing I know I hear Soraya yell, "Night night mommy!" And she closes her door and hops in bed! I put Jack in bed then checked on her and sure enough she was in bed falling asleep.

What a darling! Some times I don't think I deserve such an wonderful daughter :)

BFF

Soraya's BFF, Willow is moving to Costa Rica in two days. We are having a farwell open house at our place tomorrow evening for everyone to stop in and bid the Hendersons farewell. Soraya is sad...but doesn't really understand what is going on and where Costa Rica really is. I am sad for her, but I know they will be back in a year or 5 and can resume their friendship.

I am sad for myself, as Jess and I are really good friends and spent a lot of time together...especially since she lived a block away. The dynamics of our relationship is changing drastically but the nature of our relationship will remain the same. We are partakers in the Life of Christ. We are members of the Body of Christ and therefore relate to one another in Spirit and Truth...a change in physical location can change none of that.