Coleden Levi turns 2!

Today is Josh's first day back to work in a month. It's only 9am here and I already miss having him home. I'm hoping that we will adjust to our "normal" schedule quickly. We haven't seen it in about 8 months because Josh had trainings to attend a month before his deployment, then there's the 6 month deployment itself, and then our month of all-Josh-all-the-time.

As we do get back into the swing of things, I'm going to be making more appearances here on my little spot of the internet. I know how to blog with this schedule, I never seemed to figure it out while Josh was gone. Photo Fridays will be making a comeback, as well as tons of recipes I can't wait to share.

My first order of business is to share some of the details of Cole's birthday! I wish I could say how much fun Cole had, or how happy and excited he was to open all of his gifts...but I can't. Unfortunately my 2-year-old was in a mood from the moment he woke up. I don't know if it was from our very tiresome trip to Heidelberg the day before, or what, but he was such a grouch.

We decided to hold off on opening gifts until after he took a nap in hopes that he would cheer up some. That was a gamble worth taking. In the meantime, we taped some streamers to his door for him to bust through (thanks Pinterest) and I think that alone perked his spirits up. The rest of our day was spent playing with all the cool, new stuff he got.

 We had to sneak Dorian out of Cole's room to put him in the shopping cart. Cole immediately went to Dorian to make sure he was okay, he's such a good daddy.

 This is a FAST slide! Thanks Papa and Lady!

 He's really getting into this slide thing now!

 He loves his sit n spin Aunt Beth and Uncle Dan!

 Cool shades and a serious face.

 His first light up shoes! Gigi and Grandpa, he loves clapping the shoes together. We barely got them on him.

 His new white board/chalkboard.

If you look at the top left hand corner you'll see a photo of Cole from his birthday last year! I didn't do that on purpose but I love that it happened. He's also wearing the same shirt because I ordered it too large, but we got two good birthday uses out of it.

This cake, oh man. I made this cake last year for Cole with a cream cheese frosting. Since we know he's sensitive (we don't think he's allergic anymore) to dairy, I made the cake dairy-free and used a frosting that was made in a plant that also produces dairy products (I didn't feel like making frosting). Cole loved it!

 Daddy even gave Cole soy ice cream! If you haven't tried it, go now and get some, it tastes like homemade ice cream to me :)

This is slightly altered to fit our tastes and sensitivities from Bakingdom.

That about covers it, there were more gifts than what is shown, but we had some weird lighting and a lot of them didn't come out the way I had hoped :/ oh well, I can't wait for next year's birthday when we'll be stateside!

My Birthday Part 2

I like to pretend my birthday is something to celebrate for at least a week, which it is. This year, it took almost my whole birthday week to do everything I had hoped to accomplish in one day. My birthday supper, for example, was supposed to be spicy Italian beef, with an angel food cake for dessert. Neither of those happened on the 27th. After my spa day was over and Cole was fast asleep, this birthday girl had a small marathon of Supernatural (Josh got me the first 8 seasons on DVD!).

Honestly, I don't know what possessed me to try this spicy Italian beef recipe, I really don't care for spicy food. In any case, it wasn't too spicy (my husband will say it isn't spicy enough when I make it for him, once he gets back). If you are an adventurous eater, this recipe might be right up your alley:

^This photo is a bit of a lie, I added the pepperoncini for a more interesting photo, those suckers did NOT stay on my sandwich for long. Sorry for the deceit, friends.

This recipe comes from the Crock-Pot recipe collection

Spicy Italian Beef
Ingredients:
1 boneless beef chuck roast (3-4 pounds)
1 jar (12oz.) pepperoncini
1 can (14 1/2 oz) beef broth
1 1/2 cups water (or beer)
1 onion, minced
2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
1 loaf French bread, cut into thick slices
provolone cheese (optional)

Trim any fat from beef and discard. Place chuck roast in crock-pot. Drain and pull off stem ends of pepperoncini. Add pepperoncini, broth, water/beer, onion and herb blend to crock. Do NOT stir. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Remove beef, shred and return to cooking liquid; mix well. Serve on French bread.

I think this would also be tasty on rice, if French bread isn't appealing to you.

I wanted to have a birthday cake that Cole could enjoy too, and I found out angel food cake is naturally dairy-free. Unfortunately, Cole couldn't have cared less about the cake. He was more interested in the strawberry sauce and "whipped cream" I served with my cake.

This recipe comes from About.com

Angel Food Cake:
12 large egg whites (or about 1 1/2 cups)
1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 t. vanilla extract
1 t. cream of tartar
1/4 t. salt
1 cup sugar
Strawberry sauce (recipe below)
Dairy-free "whipped cream" (recipe below)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl, and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, sift together the confectioners' sugar in a medium-sized bowl until well combined. Set aside.

Add the vanilla extract, cream of tartar and salt to the egg whites. Using an electric hand mixer, beat the egg whites mixture on slow speed for 2 minutes. Turn up the speed to a medium speed setting and begin gradually adding the sugar, beating continuously until the sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Turn off the mixer, and using a spatula, slowly fold in the flour-confectioners' sugar mixture into the egg whites.
Gently spoon the batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake springs back when touched or a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake (between the outer wall and the inner wall of the pan) emerges clean. Invert the cake pan onto a cooling rack and allow the cake to cool for at least 1 hour before removing the cake from the pan.

Strawberry Sauce:
3 cups strawberries, chopped (I used frozen strawberries that I thawed slightly)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. lime juice

In a medium saucepan, combine everything and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, still stirring frequently. Remove from heat and serve warm or cold.

Dairy-free "Whipped Cream"
1 can of coconut milk
vanilla
cinnamon

Chill coconut milk overnight. Spoon (not pour) coconut cream into bowl, add desired amount of vanilla and cinnamon and whip. Voila!

Tip: To know if it's a good coconut milk to use for whipped cream, rattle the can, if you hear nothing, add it to your cart. If you hear liquid sloshing around, it won't work for whipping. Also, now that I've told you to give the can a shake, before you place it in the fridge and after it's spent the night there, do not shake it. Basically, once it's in your home, leave it alone. Otherwise the cream combines with the coconut water and isn't worth whipping.

I could end this post another activity from my birthday week, instead I will leave you with this little nugget of information:

Photo Friday the 13th!

Day 7: Christmas Tree. Originally, I had hoped to get a picture of Cole's silhouette, but my boy was just too wiggly for it, so we'll stick with a regular old Christmas tree shot!

Day 8: Something cold. I love and hate when I wake up to a chilly house. I love bundling up and being cozy, but those first few steps on the chilly tile floor, are not my favorite. Cold toes are the worst when you don't have a husband to sit on them to warm them up. That's true love folks!

Day 9: Baking. I love baking around Christmas. These great cookies came out of an unfortunate attempt to make spritz cookies. Word to the wise: buy a metal cookie press, the plastic ones are worthless. Recipe below.

Day 10: Underneath. Her new favorite place to hang out. 

Day 11: Holiday drink. When we moved to Germany, we were introduced to Gluhwein. Our first Christmas here, I was unable to partake because I was pregnant, but last Christmas I finally got to give this wonderful beverage a try. It's especially tasty when your checking out a Christmas market! Another recipe to check out below!

Day 12: Joy. One of my favorite things about Christmas is receiving holiday-scented soaps from my mom! Cole decided he didn't like the way I had them arranged...his way looks better.

Day 13: Handwriting. Every year I could always count on getting a Christmas card from my Grandma. This will be the first year I won't be receiving one from her. I'm so happy I'm a hoarder and keep old cards. Merry Christmas Grandma, I miss you terribly.

I made this dairy-free by using vegan butter.

You can use the same ingredients to make spritz cookies if you have a cookie press that won't break at your first attempt to use it. Just reduce the cooking time to 5 or 6 minutes.

I used a Pinot Noir. I've heard that you can substitute grape juice for the red wine if you're wanting an unleaded version, but I've never tried it so I can't tell you if it's good or not. I found this recipe on Food.com.

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.

Pumpkin Soup

While I was in Omaha, my family had a soup cook-off. I wanted to try something different, but I also wanted something my son would be able to eat (dairy-free). I liked the way it turned out, it may not be for everyone, but it works for our family. I may not have won, but the two votes I did get were both from children, so if you want something to please your kids, this is the soup to try. Someone told me that pumpkin soup is better served cold, I served it warm and it tasted good to me, but next time I'll give it a shot!

Ingredients:

• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium-sized leek, white parts only, chopped (this video helped me quite a bit since I'd never worked with leeks before)
• 1 cup chopped apple
• 3 T. sugar
• ¾ t. ground cinnamon
• ½ t. ground ginger
• ¼ t. ground nutmeg
• ½ t. salt, plus more to taste
• 1 15-ounce can low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 15-ounce cans pumpkin puree
• 1 cup coconut or soy milk
• Pepper, to taste
• Cayenne, for garnishing

 Directions:
1. In a medium-large stock pot (3-5 quarts), heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the leek, apple, sugar, spices and salt, and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the leek is softened.
3. Add the vegetable broth and water. Bring the mixture to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes, or until the apple pieces are tender.
4. Stir in the pumpkin puree (next time I'll use 3 cans of pumpkin instead of 2).
5. Working in batches, puree the mixture in a blender until smooth, adding a bit of the coconut/soy milk to each batch until all has been added.With a normal sized blender, I was able to puree everything in two batches.
6. Return the soup to the pot and heat over low heat, stirring constantly, to desired temperature. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and fresh herbs or your choice.

Slightly adapted from About.com

Cole loves his cousin Sara!

It's the first day of autumn!

This is one of my favorite days of the year. Our morning started out super foggy, but quickly became a beautiful FALL day. Last year I made apple chips, this year I'm celebrating with an apple-honey dutch baby. Have you heard of these? I was flipping through an old Taste of Home cookbook, looking for a fun apple recipe when I spotted this one. What is a dutch baby? It's basically a pancake, sometimes they're called German pancakes, how perfect is that?!

Ingredients:
PANCAKE:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used lacto-free milk to make it dairy free)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
TOPPING:
3 large apples, sliced
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, eggs, and milk until smooth. Place coconut oil in a 10-inch dutch oven, and heat in oven for 3-4 minutes or until oil has melted; tilt pan to coat bottom and sides (I used a pastry brush for the sides). Pour batter into hot skillet. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
While the pancake is baking, saute apples in a saucepan with coconut oil until lightly browned. Stir in honey, lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water until smooth; add to apple mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Spoon into pancake. Serve immediately.

Now, I haven't figured out the prettiest way to get the Dutch baby to a bowl, but as ugly as it is in my bowl, it's darn tasty!