another good recipe

Butternut Squash Soup with Sage

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil 2 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes 2 medium Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced 1 large onion, chopped 1 tablespoon sugar

3 cups chicken broth 1 tablespoon butter or margarine 1 teaspoon dried sage

Directions:

1.	Heat oil in saucepot over medium heat. Add squash, apples and onion and cook until almost tender. Stir in sugar, coriander and red pepper. Cook and stir 2 minutes.
2.	Add broth. Heat to a boil. Cook over low heat 10 minutes. or until squash is tender.
3.	Place cooked squash mixture in food processor, using a slotted spoon. Cover and blend until smooth, adding enough cooking liquid to make soup of desired consistency.

Random stuff

These are a few of the photos from the past few months of chasing kids and watching them grow.

The kids enjoy the playground area at church.

Quentin has been asking for a cherry tree for the yard. We planted one this summer for him. Not sure which one of them is growing faster....We visited the zoo one afternoon. They had some fun displays set up. Lars got gobbled up!

Quentin enjoyed the tropical area of the displays.

Quentin created this salt dough witch one morning before school. He is such a little artist!

Quentin in his full armor for Halloween trick-or-treating. Lars had a full match in gold. He took part of it off for a party at the YMCA, then refused to pose for a picture in his full gear!



In an effort to get back into a regular routine of posting family pictures and some of the good food we try feed the children.

Sweet Potato Casserole
Makes 6 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes. Baking time: 40 minutes
Casserole:
2 lbs sweet potatoes
½ cup egg beaters
½ cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/3 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 Tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray casserole dish. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes into medium chunks. In a large pot of water, boil the sweet potatoes until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the sweet potatoes along with the beaten eggs, ½ cup maple syrup, butter, milk, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Spoon the mashed sweet potato mixture into the baking dish.
In a small bowl, mix the chopped pecans, 2 additional tablespoons of butter, and on tablespoon maple syrup. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the top of the sweet potatoes. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Birthday Party

We had an early birthday party for Quentin. The YMCA has sports parties. We added dodgeball the mix for the kids too! They all had fun!

The referee called him "out"!

Focus... focus...
A good old game of stomp the balloon and make some noise! A hit all around with seven year old boys!

May updates

The month went very quickly. The boys enjoyed some time at the park. One of the neighborhood parks has had some recent equipment additions, the boys are never afraid to explore and burn off a little energy.

Quentin's Kindergarten Class visited the Fire and Police Department. Of course, my son was the one who asked the officer to put the handcuffs on him. He thought it was really funny until the officer had to look for his keys to unlock them.

Quentin with his friend Fallon.

Peaceful weekend

The weekend was wonderful. Jamie finished his finals for classes and we were able to spend the whole weekend as a family without any homework to be done. I realize this will come to an end too soon, as Quentin is wrapping up his Kindergarten year... there are many more years ahead. We spent Saturday doing a bunch of odds and ends in the afternoon and watched Nim's Island together in the evening. It was refreshing to see a movie that did not cast adults or parents as bumbling fools. Quentin wasn't feeling well Saturday evening, I suspect he got some bad food at some point earlier in the day. Deli meat is a mysterious thing....
Sunday morning we lounged in our pajamas, played with kids relaxed. We had a family outing in the afternoon to celebrate Mother's Day. The Winzer Stube is minutes away from home and had wonderful food. The kids had onion rings for what I believe was the first time for each of them, they loved it. Lars liked the breading, then he discovered the onion inside. There was an accordian player for entertainment. The kids were enchanted with the costume and the music... perhaps even more so, with the sight of their parents singing along! We had a lovely weekend.

Spring Fling

Quentin was chasing giant bubbles outside at the church Spring Fling today. He had so much fun!
Lars had his face painted. He pretended he was a cat most of the day. The face painting included a little tail coming from his mouth. He said it was a mouse tail.

rhubarb

The Rhubarb is large enough to pick and make a cake! Joyous day!!!!