Octobers Kitchen

I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen regardless of the time of year, but when Fall comes around, even more time is spent there. The preperation and cooking time for cold weather meals are not the same as it is for foods we eat when it's warm. The fixins and process of simmering soups & rising breads keeps a cook lingering around in the kitchen much longer than a salad or sandwich does. And with the smell & sampling of these Fall foods, who wants to leave the kitchen anyways? The weather and our diets began it's change around the beginning of October. The leaves began changing color, the days were noticeably shorter, evenings began to cool down quite a bit and the wind picked up. At that same time, and with Esperanza's help & Ezra's watch, we've been cookin up lots of soups, breads, muffins, hot cereals & stews in the kitchen.

Rainbow Soup

A delicious veggie soup with a yummy spice combination of paprika and tumeric

It had been awhile since the last time we made bread in the bread machine (mothers day I think) and when I went to make a loaf recently I discovered I was missing an essential part to the bread machine. I was determined to have home made bread rolls to go with the crock pot stew that had been cooking all day. So, Esperanza and I made some bread the good ol' fashioned way, with our hands.Esperanza loved kneading her little bit of dough. She was very quiet and mesmerized by the process of making bread. It was very therapeutic for both of us. We did a 'quick' recipe so it only had to rise once then cook. Great for little ones that want things now.

Aaaaand then there was yesterday, the day we made pumpkin muffins (I call them cupcakes which makes it more appealing to Esperanza). This pumpkin cupcake making day is particularly memorable. This was the first time I let her help me add ingredients into the electric mixer and watch it swirl around and around.
Here's Esperanza 'reading' the recipe from the book

Here she is getting ready to add ingredients into the mixer bowl. As we began to mix the honey and butter together she was so excited about what the mixer does. She looked at me and said, 'Mama, I LOVE this'. It was cute. I turned my back to grab another egg out of the fridge. In that split second I wasn't watching her, she had leaned in to get a closer look and one of her pigtails fell into the mixer. It was quickly swooped up and swirled tightly around the spinner. Stopped it completely and the machine just hummed. She didn't make a peep. When I turned back around, her head was tilted sideways, head and machine touching. I quickly turned the mixer off, called Armando out to the kitchen to come help and we eventually were able to unwind her hair from the mixer. It took awhile. I almost just grabbed the scissors, but I couldn't. She was scared a little but not hurt a bit. Her hair is pretty thick and the fact that it was the whole pigtail and not smaller sections of hair probably helped in that department. Either way, it was scary and could have been a lot worse. I had failed to warn her to keep her distance. I hadn't even explained that there was any reason to be safe around the mixer and I had allowed her to stand much too close. I'm thankful nothing serious happened, things could have turned out really bad. Amazingly, the whole incident only set us back a few moments before we were back to making the muffins...only this time, with a whip and a plastic bowl - back to basics.

Putting pumpkin themed muffin cups in the mini-muffin pan. She really is a great helper!

After they baked, we made a healthy frosting to top the 'cupcakes' with. They were delicious, even with the few hairs and part of an egg shell we found in them.

While all this excitement does on in the kitchen, Ezra is usually sitting back, watching us from his high chair with a grin on his face. A friend gave me her sons old high chair recently and it has been so nice to have 2 arms free to cook & still have a happy baby close to me in the kitchen. He often has a chew toy or binky in his mouth. Recently, he pulls on his socks, stretching them all the way up to his mouth to suck on. Silly kid.

Today, I made this yummy Egyptian Red Lentil Soup. Mmmm. It's color and consistency very closely resembles the contents of the diaper I just changed - sorry.

Happy Fall/Festive/Seasonal/Holiday baking and cooking! Be safe with those kids while you cook.