This Is How We Do The 4th

We're so happy to have Pop & Mimi visiting for our 4th of July weekend.

These boys are spoiled with the best of the best. <3

Off to church on Sunday in our patriotic colours.

Then looking forward to our small group and some church friends coming over for smoked BBQ.

And of course, a few games of Mafia.

Our Monday began with red, white, and blue breakfast scones.

Thank you, Pioneer Woman!

After an early morning wake up to catch todays Tour de France stage.

 Then off to the Fallon 4th of July Parade.

Happy Independence  Day!

Keeping Up With Traditions

Holidays always bring with them a lot of memories.

I love sharing childhood traditions with my kiddos at times like this.

The first of which is Paska.

My Mom would make Paska (Mennonite Easter Bread - baked with fresh orange and lemon) 

and then top it with buttercream frosting, jellybeans and shredded coconut. 

Even then, I didn't really love it as a child.

But I do now, even though we only get as far as toasting and buttering it.

Here are my 5 loaves baking in the oven.

It turned out light and delicious.

Don't ask how many of the five are left...

One other family tradition was going out to breakfast on Good Friday.

I guess most Americans don't get the holiday off, but we were still able to get out for a delicious breakfast at our favourite spot before Daddy had to head to work.

This is a tradition we've inherited from my husband's family.

I had about given up on an Easter Egg hunt for the kids this year because EVERY SINGLE EGG made and sold at Walmart, Target, and everywhere else I looked was made in China. 

And then I saw a social media post from my favourite WA toy store - Fairhaven Toy Garden - advertising that they sold American made plant (not plastic) based reusable Eco Eggs.

Wohoo!  

Thank you Amazon Prime for free 2 day shipping!

It looks like we'll be carrying on this tradition as well, 

and supporting an American business at the same time. 

Double win.

All Things Green

I woke up yesterday with my to do list on my mind. 

But a few minutes into my day I realized that it was St Patrick's Day!

Though I'm not Irish, 

as a Mama I'm always looking for ways to add a little more fun to our days. 

So, after a quick spinach tinted breakfast smoothie, we headed out the door to a local cafe where we were pleasantly surprised to find green frosted cupcakes. 

I think they're called muffins at 9:00am, right?!

We normally try to avoid artificial dyes, but this was an exception.

Lynden wasn't quite so lucky and just had to share my cherry scone. 

Ryder learned how to draw a four leaf clover and followed that up with a beautiful rainbow. 

Daddy was so happy to see his beautiful artwork when he got home from work.

 Second breakfast was followed up by a trip to the library.

I do enjoy reliving my childhood through my boys. 

Bill Peet books were some of my favourites as a girl - I don't know if it was the fun animals or engaging artwork, but I still love most of them.

We chose a few of those and Ryder chose an additional train story to bring home.

Eventually we had to get to a few of those to do things:

Ryder was a great helper with my yard work, picking dandelions for the garbage man.

While the boys napped I was able to finish up two Etsy orders.

 And my rainbow of Fiestaware came in handy to hold macaroni with green peas (and black beans) for a delicious green lunch. 

Sure do love these precious boys and the fun we have!

Easy Peasy Granola Bars

I'm on a hunt for the perfect granola bar recipe. Taste is important, but I also don't want to have to run out and buy any unusual ingredients that I don't have stocked in my kitchen on any given day - no, I don't normally have Rice Krispies on hand. I also want to get back to a more whole food lifestyle for our family and that can be hard with lunches to pack and a busy schedule with kids.

It's a little ironic that in today's batch I tossed in a bag of Reese's Pieces that have been sitting on a shelf in the back of the pantry for ages. But we can talk about my partially hydrogenated hypocrisy later. Next time I'll use the organic dark chocolate chips I picked up at Bob's Red Mill on our recent road trip through Oregon.


Here is the everyday cast of characters:

Granola Bars

1 C Peanut Butter (creamy or crunchy)
1/2 C Honey
1/2 C Coconut Oil

2 1/2 C Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1/2 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 C Almonds
1/2 C Unsweetened Coconut Flakes - Shredded is fine too
1 t Salt
Optional: 1 C Chocolate Chips

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Heat the peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and stir well. Pat into a 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Wait at least 20 minutes until cutting.

The beauty of making homemade granola is that you can be super flexible with ingredients. Don't have any almonds? Use walnuts or pecans. Don't have coconut? Leave it out. It's hard to go wrong with minor deviations like that. Like me, you'll learn over time what tastes best and works well for your family.

Happy baking!

Easter Traditions

Today we continued the Enns tradition of breakfast out on Good Friday. Growing up, this was the only time I can remember that we ever ate breakfast out - after all, what could be better for you and more economical than porridge?! ;)

There is one other tradition I remember fondly from my growing up days. This one comes from my Mennonite heritage. Paska!

For those of you who haven't been blessed with pasta all of your life, I'll explain... It's a sweet yeast bread made with orange and lemon and then iced. Due to the huge amount of time required to make it (rising 3x) I can be thankful that we only enjoy it this time of year. I did, however, make a full recipe (5 loaves worth) so that we could freeze and toast it for just a couple more weeks - if it lasts that long. 

Here are my lemon and orange about to be pureed with warm milk and butter.

When Ryder heard the word 'bread' he perked up and became a very keen helper!

First the salt.

Then the sugar.

With over 8 cups of flour, I sure am glad that I stocked up last time we were at Costco.

Maybe it's time for a bigger KitchenAid?

Risen dough for the second time - can you tell that it's getting late?
 

I ran out of loaf pans, so we ended up with some mini loaves. 

 And then this morning, just for fun, I experimented by making my own powdered sugar for the icing. I had seen something on Pinterest about homemade brown and powdered sugars and since the regular stuff is so much cheaper and more readily accessible, I gave it a whirl. Our Vitamix did a great job of powdering the sugar and with butter, whole milk, and a splash of homemade vanilla, they were frosted and ready to eat in no time.

Traditionally, it's decorated with coconut and jelly beans, then slathered with butter, but I had to substitute Carrot Cake M&Ms for jellybeans since we didn't have any at the house. 

Paska anyone?

What To Do When Hubby Works 12 Hours on a Saturday?

We've been blessed to be able to spend most weekends together of late, but today was an exception. After making his breakfast smoothie and kissing Braden goodbye, I determined to make myself a Saturday-worthy breakfast anyway. 

Enter Belgian Waffles.

Since I was already going to have dishes to clean and had 4 extra egg whites (after making homemade chocolate pudding last night) I decided to go ahead and make a double recipe in order to freeze the extras for the busy days to come.  There's nothing quite like a toasted waffle with peanut butter and creamed honey all gooey and oozing into the squares - YUM! 

My toppings of choice were a handful of granola and sprinkling of fresh organic blueberries (thanks to yesterday's new Bountiful Basket!)

I ended up with over 12 full waffles all ziploc-ed, frozen, and ready to pull out at a moment's notice. Not bad considering 8am hadn't even rolled around yet.

After breakfast Ryder and I made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up a few lightbulbs and a few other 'necessities' - have you seen/smelled the new Burt's Bees soy candles? I saw them for the first time today and immediately fell in love with the Papaya Guava scent. It's warming in my kitchen now.  Mmmm....

I also picked up a fairly large galvanized pail (Made in the USA) with a lid for only $12 and came home with projecting on my mind. A quick look through my stockpile of fabric and a not so quick browse through Pinterest later, I whipped up a few pail liners with my sewing machine. Voila! I now have a diaper pail that seals - with washable liners. 

I had just one more item on my to-do list for the day and that was to turn some alien vegetables into baby food. Once again, my Bountiful Basket contained an unidentifiable vegetable (it looked like a cross between a cauliflower and the ugly succulents that rapidly reproduced in our WA flower beds). Thanks to a friend, who also picks up Bountiful Basket produce, I learned that it's actually called romanesco broccoli. Call me a wimp, but I wasn't about to eat this terrifying looking plant. Thankfully, the Vitamix can turn any substance into a silky puree, and so that's what I did with these and a bunch of carrots. Lucky Little Dipper has a treat in store for him!

And here are a few fun photos from earlier in the week. We've been enjoying the sunshine and on Friday had a great picnic lunch play date at the park with friends.