Bread and soup making

We made a big beautiful rosemary foccacia from the veganomicon(this is a great homeschooling recipe, even measurements, easy to work with dough, and quick) Along with a clean out the fridge vegi soup (a staple in our house). Loaded with lots of red kale and quinoa,all to the sound of cocorosie radio on Pandora. All in a lovely day.

Foccacia recipe

1 packet active dry yeast
3 T fresh rosemary
3 T olive oil
3 c unbleached all purpose flour or half whole wheat (i think spelt would work too)
1 1/4 c warm water
1 t salt
1 t coarse salt for top garish (i used Celtic sea salt)
Extra rosemary and oil for top

Mix water and yeast , then add in flour salt roseMary  and oil. Knead for 6 minutes, you should have a soft smooth dough add water or flour accordingly if to sticky or dry, rub with oil place in bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let the dough rise for an hour or until doubled in size , punch dough and knead a few times. Roll the dough out in to a circle 1 1/4 inches thick , rub with oil, rosemary and coarse salt, place on a cookie sheet, cover and let rise for another 20 mins. Preheat oven to 350 f. Bake foccacia for 35 mins or until golden brown , let foccacia cool for 10th mins before slicing , drizzle with extra olive oil. You could spread this with pesto, olive tapenad, anything really. A friend of mine made this with caramelized oniins, sooo good.

Happy vernal equinox

Spring! Spring!! SPRING!!!! Father winter has finally gone to bed and the root children are out and about.  We spent the day making butterflies and decorating the nature table and covering the house in yellow and green streamers . Eli received a new stone for her nature table. The playscape I've Been working on for the girls wasn't finished in time but I hope to give it to them as a late equinox present along with a little felt deer family (i'll definitely post a pic when it's completed) , we've also started working on the garden and were surprised to find
so many little friends already awake from their long winters nap. The earth is alive and green again , the possibilities are endless.

Sweet presents from daddy

Daddy came home with a set of four of these lovely little tea cups, just right for the girls, eli was was so excited to use them this morning for tea time(coconut chia in the pot). along with this turquoise fiesta pitcher I,ve been talking about for a week, yay! He got them from this little shop that's part antiques part just plain cute , we have a lot of those in slc. I can't wait to use it ,I love presents, thank-you daddy.

Natural treasures

We went for a nature walk for the second day in a row, the weathers been so lovely these last couple days. After such a dreary few weeks, it was wonderful to see and feel the sun again. The first few signs of spring have appeared as well, buds on the trees , little sproutlings on the ground. Even the box elder bugs are  out in hords. We collected more seeds for our seed box and snail shells by the dozens  in all sizes. We found some fallen branches with buds on them which put in a little vase at the center of our nature table. We had to add second shelf to our nature corner to accommodate all our new treasures. All and all it was a beautiful morning.

Trash craft- Recycled play cottons

I'm sure you've all seen those super booshy over rated definitely not vegan play silk on natural toy sights ( for those of you who have no idea what I,m talking about, they're simple pieces of silk cut and dyed in all different colors and sizes used for imaginative play) but the truth is their not over rated, they truly are a wonderful toys concept ,but they don't have to involve boil insect alive or cost an arm and a leg for that matter. We took a couple of trips to the linen and fabric section of the thrift store and collect shear , light weight fabrics of all colors. We even got lucky, and found some white cotton gauze which we took home dyed brown , yellow and pink using different methods. Simple cut down your fabrics in different sized keeping in mind what they might be used for (capes, playscapes, tomato sauce, fort building etc.) And hem the sides. If dying your fabrics soak them in vinegar and water for a few hours. Then simmer water with a pour of white vinegar or a coupe table spoons of salt and your dying ingredient like tumeric or coffee ( you can also use koolade, which we tried , though I wouldn't recomed it ,for the life of me I couldn't get the koolade smell out, beside their are wonderful nature dyes out their) then place in your fabric and simmer for around 15 min, longer if you want a more intense color, then drain , rinse really well until water runs clear and hang to dry. Keep in mind when hunting for fabrics to dye, to look for the highest percentage of cotton or natural based fiber, synthetic don't take color well. Good luck, our girls and their play mates love them.

Trash craft- DIY Gnome tree house and tree branch blocks

Jacob and I made this for the girls nature corner , daddy designed the base and I designed the top using some cut down discarded branches I cut in to segments with a hand saw, I made a swing from a mossy dry piece of branch ,cut in half ,sanded and then drilled with two holes for the hemp rope. I used two old bird cage ladders to complete it , really simple. Draped with some green play cottons, along with a little homemade gnome family (ours has been abused) and some wooden or little felt animals and your all set to go. I also made so tree branch blocks using the hand saw , the girls love them even though they don't exactly sit straight , but I guess that's part of the fun. They become tables and chairs, castles, beds and more for the little animals.

Amelies' first birthday

The day started off beautifully , we sat and made paper lanterns from old art work and scrap paper , covered the house with some yellow streamers we found at the thrift store. It was a slow and lovely morning . We even went for a walk to pick up some treats to share with our friends, amelie on my back , and elis' dolly on hers , both with our grocery bags in hand. We decided to just have a little play date with two friends this year instead of a big party , that way we could keep it simple and focus more on the girls. We made raw Apple pie, and raw kale chips , date coconut rolls, bought some kettle chips , and coconut agave icecream sandwiches and nori maki crackers . It was nice to focus on the needs of just a few friends instead of a whole house full. In past years ,I've always  had the tenancy to become extremely overwhelme at even thought of a event or celebrations, so I was determined not to stress this time and just enjoy my little girl on her birthday and I did!