November 25, 2013

Custard, Snow, and an 18 Month Old

Did you watch the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who?! It was amazing. Just amazing. Yeah. I'm going to miss Matt Smith when Peter Capaldi takes over, but I'm excited to see how he takes on the role.

I can't recall ever having tried custard before, that being said, there's the possibility that I didn't make it correctly, but it was not my cup of tea. On the bright side, I'm very happy I made it dairy-free because Cole loved it! I'll probably be making it again for him. When that happens, I'll be sure to take a photo, I've been really bad about that lately. Oh and if you're using soy milk (and I think coconut milk as well) be prepared for a more gray colored custard. If you really want it to be that lovely yellow color, I've read you can add saffron threads.

Ingredients:
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon caster sugar (you can make your own by grinding up granulated sugar in a food processor)
2-3 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
1-2 teaspoons cornstarch

On medium-low heat, bring 3/4 cup soy milk to a gentle simmer. While milk is heating, beat the eggs, vanilla, and sugar together in a bowl until well combined. When milk is just at the simmer point, add hot milk to the egg/vanilla/sugar mixture (not the other way around). Whisk together until well combined and then pour back into saucepan. Continue whisking until mixture returns to simmering point. Custard should start to thicken.

In a bowl, use the rest of your milk (1/4 cup), and 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch; mix until smooth. Add milk/starch to hot custard, stirring custard the whole time. The custard will thicken quickly. As soon as the custard reaches desired thickness, remove from heat. You may need to repeat the milk/starch step if it doesn't thicken enough for you.
Adapted from: Grain Free Living

Serve with fish fingers and watch an episode of Doctor Who and you have a guaranteed yourself an awesome night!

Yesterday, I decided to bring up our Christmas decorations. I had planned on setting up our tree a couple of weeks ago, but due to illness, I just wasn't up to it. Now I am well, and ready to feel the Christmas spirit sweep over me.

This morning, we got to it. We started with some tunes to get us in the mood, mostly Bing Crosby, Amy Grant, Andy Williams, and Michael Buble. Once I figured out where to put the tree, I started constructing it. Cole helped as much as an 18 month old can help. Mostly he came up to me to hand me his empty water cup and make sucking sounds until I went and refilled it.

I'm really glad I didn't wait until Cole was down for a nap to put the tree up. I think having Cole "help" put the tree up made him less interested in it. He'll go up to it, touch it gently and then walk away. He's more interested in the lights, than the tree itself.

After our tree, I hung our stockings, and just as I was finishing up, I looked out the window to see it snowing. I'm not a huge fan of snow, but seriously, what better day for the first snowfall, than the day you're putting Christmas decorations up?!

Sidenote: I'm going to try my very hardest this year to be more positive about snow. I hate seeing people complain about weather on Facebook, and I then I blog about how I hate the snow, so I'm determined to find the good. For starters, it makes for a great background while decorating the house!

So, I talked about the custard, and the snow; now the 18 month old. I can't believe it. Cole is a year and a half old. Time is going by so fast! I can't believe how much he's changed since his birthday. I love getting to see him learn and grow and explore. He's funny and smart and gives the best hugs around! There's an 18 month old that lives at my house. Crazy. A good kind of crazy.


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