summer harms: fall

Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts

October 10, 2013

coming to life on Pinterest + pumpkin pie spiced breakfast rice

Good morning, guys! News today. I can't remember how long I've had my Pinterest account, and I can't remember the last time I used it, but that all changed last night. It's time. I'm coming to life on Pinterest! I've been tucking little things away in weird places on our computer and iPad for the past few weeks, loading up on yummy fall recipes and stuff, and yesterday I just gave in. That's what Pinterest is for, for pete's sake. I think I was avoiding it because I thought it would be too time-consuming, which I know it will be at first, but once I get all my ducks in a row over there I think I should be able to sit back and enjoy it in moderation. Oh, and I'm finally working on getting all of my recipes & posts from this blog pinned to this board, for super easy browsing. So come on over and help me liven things up! Meanwhile, I'll keep pinning things from the past... I only got to December 2011 yesterday, so there are a lot more recipes to come!

What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Helpful or overwhelming? And what are the best ways you've found to use it?

On another note, we've been enjoying second breakfast at our house recently. Being pregnant (3rd trimester starts in a few days!), eating every couple hours is both an obligation and a privilege. :) Hadley and I are usually hungry again at about 10 o'clock, so we'll scrounge up something for a morning snack. Most days, that's an apple with almond butter, or a couple extra fried eggs, or some leftover apple crisp, but sometimes it's nice to make hot cereal. This pumpkin pie spiced rice hit the spot yesterday, it's so perfect for October and so easy to whip up quick! Last year when I started adding more sprouted grains to my diet, but still mostly avoided gluten, I realized how nice it is to keep leftover rice in the fridge all the time. And then I realized that rice makes an awesome breakfast! Do you ever eat rice as a hot cereal for breakfast? If not, give this a try sometime. It's hardly a "recipe" but you'll get the idea.

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Breakfast Rice

an easy hot cereal, perfect for fall

2 T. coconut oil

hefty serving of leftover rice

pinch of sea salt

1/4 to 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 T. of your favorite sweetener

(I used coconut sugar, but maple syrup would be nice too)

Warm coconut oil in a small pot, then add in rice and remaining ingredients. Stir together until warmed through and steamy. Makes enough for one hungry mama, plus a few bites to share with a toddler.

See you all on Pinterest!

categories:breakfast,fall,recipes,show and tell | 6 comments

October 9, 2013

October Happy + Plain Ol' Chili

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Here we are a week into it, so I've already missed 8 chances to say it: I love October. Don't we all? October makes it easy to love change. What are you looking forward to about this terrific month? Here's my list:

Scarves and boots

Needing a blanket when we sit on the couch

So much color in the world

Seeing farmers in the field, hurrying in the harvest

Tractors with headlights blaring, still hard at work in the dark

Burning the spicy, clove-y smelling candle that I found on amazon

Regular chili, white chicken chili, green chicken chili... all kinds of chili

Wearing smartwool socks

Making a pumpkin cake

Gray skies, foggy mornings, all the changing maple trees on our street

Cornbread in my cast iron skillet

Doing something with coffee and the pumpkin pie spice I just made

Making hot lunches to warm us up in the middle of the day

Watching Parks & Rec

Stuffing squash with beef and peppers

Picking out the halloween candy for our neighborhood kids

Mums and pumpkins out on doorsteps

Painting pumpkins, carving pumpkins, roasting pumpkins, anything with pumpkins

Today we welcomed October with watercolors. Remember watercolors? The perfect what should we do activity? I kinda forgot about them over the summer. So glad I remembered they exist in time for fall. It's going to be a regular activity around here, especially as the days get more chilly. Hadley surprised me with how much she remembered from painting a little last spring and how long she stayed interested in it. Between watercoloring and running to the potty (we're kind of in the beginning stages of a big change over here!) we were pretty busy until lunchtime. I love that she only wanted to use the blue brush to dip in the blue paint and the purple brush was for purple paint. Today she painted a jack-o-lantern and a maple leaf that I drew for her.

Since we're all so super happy about October being here, let's talk about chili really quick. On Sunday, the heat came on in our house for the first time of the season (!!!), and usually Sunday night is pancake night at our house, but we decided to celebrate the season with a fitting bowl of chili and some maple cornbread instead.

Do you have a chili recipe? Like a basic, go-to chili that you can throw together whenever? Before I got married, I certainly didn't. In fact, I certainly didn't even like chili. It was a bean problem. I'm picky when it comes to beans... I don't like them too big and meaty. (ahem... I'm talking about you, kidney beans.) But soon after I became a Harms, I was introduced to my mother-in-law's good chili and I understood what all the chili fuss was about. I love it so much now! I honestly can't believe I haven't blogged about this recipe yet, because it's one of my favorite things. Want to know Judy's secret that won me over? Use baked beans. That's it! That's all it took, but it changed everything. I always use them now, or else some other kind of small white bean, and I always stick with Judy's simple, satisfying recipe for homemade chili. Because I love you guys, and because I don't think she'd mind, I'm going to share! If you don't have your go-to basic chili recipe in life yet, let Mom Judy help you out.

Mom Judy's Chili

1 pound grass-fed ground beef

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves minced garlic

sea salt and pepper to taste

1 28 oz. can of organic baked beans or any small, white bean

1 15 oz. can organic tomato sauce

15 oz. of water (just fill up the tomato sauce can)

3 to 4 Tablespoons of chili seasoning or chili powder

3/4 cup of your favorite salsa

In a large dutch oven, cast iron skillet, or heavy-bottomed pot, brown the ground beef with onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir in the beans, tomato sauce, water, chili seasoning, and salsa. Simmer for 30 minutes or you can put it in the crockpot on low for 1-2 hours. Serve hot with cornbread, grilled cheese, quesadillas, or cinnamon rolls. Serves 8-10, and makes great leftovers. (Use it to make chili dogs or ladle it on top of a bowl of rice. mmmm.)

My Maple Cornbread

-Gluten and Dairy free-

Makes a very small cake! Enough for 4 large pieces.

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

2 to 3 T. pure maple syrup

1 large egg

1/4 cup coconut/almond/rice milk (or regular milk, if dairy sits well with you!)

1/2 cup corn meal (I used sprouted corn flour)

1/2 cup rice flour (I used sprouted brown rice flour)

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, blend together all of the wet ingredients, then mix in the dry. Add batter to a greased baking dish or cast iron skillet (something small like a 1 quart baking dish or an 8-inch skillet). Bake for 13 to 16 minutes, or until golden and middle feels set. Serve warm with honey and ghee, or a bit more maple syrup. Makes a small, short cake to serve 4.

I really should double this recipe, but I like throwing just a little of this and little of that together to whip up something small and fresh. It feels so made-to-order. And anyway, right now it's plenty for our tiny fam.

categories:5 minute craft,at my house,dairy free,fall,favorite things,gluten free,recipes | 14 comments

October 3, 2013

Homemade Crockpot "Cider"

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Ahh! We're already an hour into Hadley's nap time and I'm still writing this, so I still haven't blogged yet! I keep wanting to post about this homemade apple cider that I made over a week ago, but everyday I get distracted. Take yesterday; I had two amazing friends over and their cutie pie babies and there was good conversation and my german chocolate cake... how could I get any blogging done with all of that awesomeness around? :) Today my distraction came in the form of Instagram, which, have I mentioned? I love it so much. Thanks to you guys who follow me over there. (@summerharms if you want to find me!) I actually owe IG for a lot of my 50 Promises orders. (thank you!!) Plus, I'm finding that it leads to me taking pictures that I actually go back and browse through like a scrapbook. And that, I can totally love. (I will never be a scrapbooker. It's just not in my make up.)

For those of you who don't have Instagram, here's my latest post from today:

Tomato Soup + cheesy garlic bread from our lunch today.

And I was tagged by the awesome Chrystal Smith (check out her new blog!) to share a few things that I was thinking about right now...

1. I hope those mushrooms in the fridge are still good. I need them for stroganoff tonight.

2. Why do I procrastinate cooking kale? (Braised kale from #thefamilyflavor is on the dinner menu tonight too)

3. Loving Mark Driscoll's new sermon series.

4. Excited for Parks & Rec tonight.

5. Harry Potter is the best soundtrack ever and I will play it everyday until I can start up the Christmas music.

6. Ready for a new book.

7. Wanting to buy a treadmill and a clean-burning candle for fall.

8. Wanting to post about homemade cider, but I keep getting distracted by IG...

But now, finally, for some apple cider. This isn't freshly pressed like a true cider should be, but it was actually made (not a bottle of apple juice with spices added). I'm talking I started out with whole apples and water. And they made something delish. Beautiful, clear, and rusty red. It was such a fun day. My house smelled like Christmas morning! It made over half a gallon of finished cider, so we've got plenty down in the freezer to thaw out when the Harms family reunites for our annual Deer Hunting Holiday. I'm a big fan of a crockpot of hot apple cider sitting out on the counter all day long when the whole family gets together. It's especially nice for the sisters and sisters-in-law who will be sitting and sipping and chatting and nursing babies all afternoon. Hooray for cider season. (and you know that I'm planning on saving some of that frozen cider for Christmas Day.)

Homemade Crockpot Apple Cider

10 large apples
(1 orange optional, but wait until the last hour to add it)

2 cinnamon sticks

2 Tablespoons mulling spices

1/4 cup maple syrup*

roughly 1 half gallon of filtered water

Chop apples and oranges into large chunks. Put apples, cinnamon sticks, spices, and maple syrup into a large crockpot (at least 7 or 8 quarts). Fill the crockpot with enough water to cover the apples, and put the lid on. Turn it on high for the first 3 hours, then stir and turn down to low, and let it go for another 4-6 hours. I stirred mine occasionally, because I was so excited and felt like babysitting it, you probably don't need to though. At the end of the cooking time, scoop cider mixture out of the crockpot with a 2 cup-glass measuring cup and pour scoop by scoop, pressing it through a fine strainer to separate the liquid from the fruit mash and peels. Serve hot, or let cool and store finished cider in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. You can also pour it into glass jars and freeze. (Just make sure to leave a couple inches of room at the top for expansion when it freezes.) Reheat on low or simmer to serve again later.

My cider turned out pretty concentrated and not terribly sweet, so I've been adding a little water and a spoonful of maple syrup when I reheat a mug for myself.

*Feel free to add up to 1 cup of sweetener. I prefer to have my cider less sweet and add a bit of maple syrup to individual cups as we serve it.

cider after several hours of brewing time / finished cider

What hot and spicy drinks are you enjoying this fall?

categories:fall,listing,recipes,show and tell | 5 comments

September 25, 2013

Oatmeal in the air

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We're getting down to an empty fridge here at my house. Our routine is that we go grocery shopping every 2 weeks, because we live in a tiny town and it takes extra time and money to get to the good grocery stores. Well, we're at the tail-end of our 2 week stretch now.. and I'm digging deep in the freezer and meals are getting interesting. At least we're not wasting any food! I'll be making this baked oatmeal for breakfast or dinner soon-- I love that it can be thrown together from ingredients that we always have on hand.

Can you feel it? Look around... you're sure to see it... it's...

Oatmeal. There's oatmeal in the air. Now that it's officially fall, things like overnight crockpot oatmeal and baked oatmeal keep catching my eye. I've been dying to try something new, something more like an oatmeal cookie you can call a meal.

I really fell in love with the idea of putting everything in the crock and waking up to a warm cinnamon-y aroma filling up our house. But everything I read was saying "don't let it cook more than 7 hours or else it will burn"-- and there was no way I was going to stay up until midnight or get up at 5 am to turn the crockpot off. I don't have a nursing baby right now and I'm staying in my bed as long I can! So, I gave up the crockpot idea, for now, and decided to go with an oven-baked oatmeal. If you guys have a good crockpot recipe that doesn't burn and has a firm texture, please let me know!

The next obstacle in deciding how to make this oatmeal was my lack of eggs. We've been out of eggs for 5 days now and surprisingly I haven't completely lost it. I start to panic when there are no eggs in the fridge. We are getting 3 dozen from someone with a local farm today and I am praising Jesus! Anyway... I knew I wanted a glorified-oatmeal-cookie-like texture to this baked oatmeal and that an egg would be the key to that texture. But then I realized- peanut butter. Peanut butter would be my binding agent and save the day.

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used sprouted oats)

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1 large ripe banana, mashed until smooth*

1-2 T. honey or maple syrup

heaping 1/4 cup peanut butter (almond butter would be awesome if you stay away from pb)

3/4 tsp. vanilla

3/4 cup milk or almond/rice/coconut milk

for serving: strawberry or blackberry jam

In a small bowl, stir together oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a medium bowl, stir together banana, sweetener, peanut butter, vanilla, and milk.

(I did these 2 steps the night before, so I could just throw it in the pan in the morning.)

(In the morning) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine wet and dry ingredients and pour into a well-greased baking dish or pan, or individual ramekins. I used my medium-sized cast iron skillet. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until set in the middle. Serve hot or room temperature with jam, or in a bowl of milk, if that's your thing. Makes 3-4 servings.

*Banana? again? I always like to throw one in because they add extra moisture and sweetness, so I can use less honey and milk. I keep a stash of ripe bananas in our freezer, so this is easy for me. If you don't have one ready or don't want to put it in, just increase the milk amount to 1 cup and add an extra bit of honey or maple syrup.

We loved how this baked oatmeal turned out!! It was such a fun Saturday morning breakfast. Delicious and filling, and not overwhelmingly sweet. The texture was great- soft, but not soupy. We could easily cut it into pieces, especially as it cooled down a bit. It was so yummy with jelly on top! I'm definitely making it again, and can't wait to experiment with more baked oatmeal in the future. Possibly with an egg in it.

categories:breakfast,dairy free,fall,gluten free,recipes | 8 comments

September 17, 2013

Homemade applesauce + THANK YOU

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Hi all! Thanks a whole bunch for the response to yesterday's post and the fall re-stocking of the 50 Promises! I was once again blown away by how many orders came streaming in. A few hours into the morning I was halfway to sold out, so I went ahead and bought more inventory. WOW. I love shop announcement days!! I'm so happy to have so many blog and instagram friends who are passionate about being in the Word and hiding it in their hearts. You guys are the best! I already have most of your orders packaged up and ready to tote to the post office-- cannot wait for you to get them!

It truly is starting to look a bit like fall at our house. It's a cool, gray 60 degrees and in the backyard, our walnut tree is starting to throw down a sprinkling of yellow leaves. I've even seen a few leaves blowing sideways past my kitchen window today, which is one of my favorite things. It's also sounding a bit like fall here, too. My current playlist is a mixture of Harry Potter, Enya, Anne of Green Gables, and Lord of the Rings. In case you didn't know this about me: I'm a collector of movie soundtracks. What do you listen to when fall rolls around?

Oh, and last but not least, it's starting to smell like fall. Winter squashes roasting, homemade chicken broth bubbling, shortbread bars baking, and homemade applesauce simmering. A sweet friend of mine who lives on a farm (lucky, lucky, girl!) generously loaded her super cute wire basket with apples from their trees and brought them over to my house. Thank you, Katie! I don't know how many apples we unloaded, but let's call it a bushel. I just want to use the word bushel more often. Anyway, with apples a-plenty, I have plans: apple crisp, applesauce, apple baked oatmeal, and hopefully apple cider, too!

First up was applesauce. And it was such a cinch! Of course, borrowing my mother-in-law's apple peeler-corer-slicer made all the difference in the world. (Thanks, Judy!) Hadley was able to stand on a chair and help me churn the handle of the peeler and then dumped each finished apple into the crockpot. It was the highlight of her weekend. I have made homemade applesauce one other time a few years ago and remember not being very impressed, but I'm completely happy with this batch. I love how it turned out with this tiny amount of cinnamon. It's just a hint of spice, enough to really bring out the sweetness of the apples.

Easy Homemade Crockpot Applesauce

10-12 large apples*
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel and core apples. Cut into 1-inch chunks and place in a crockpot. Or, use an apple peeler-corer-slicer and just toss them in. In a small bowl, juice 1 lemon and then whisk in water and maple syrup. Sprinkle cinnamon over apple chunks and pour lemon-water mixture over all. Cover crockpot and cook on low for about 4 hours, or until apples are very soft and easily fall apart when stirred. Mash apples to desired consistency using a potato masher, or an immersion blender. I was able to get mine as smooth as I wanted it just by stirring with a wooden spoon. If applesauce is too thick, add a few tablespoons of filtered water and stir well. Let cool, place in glass jars and store in the fridge.

NOTE: Applesauce will become much, much sweeter once it has cooled. Resist the urge to add more sweetener until you've chilled the applesauce overnight. Taste it cold, and then decide if it needs more maple syrup. My apples were very tart and I thought I would need a lot more sweetener, but it's actually just perfect! I loved how it turned out with this tiny amount of cinnamon. It's just a hint of spice, enough to really bring out the sweetness of the apples.

*Any kind of tart and crisp apple works well- but free apples from your friend's farm are the best!

What kind of apple-ing do you hope to do this fall? I can't wait to head over to our town's orchard and get the Regent apples. They aren't ready until mid-October and they're my favorite for snacking! Isn't it amazing how every time you bite into an apple fresh from the tree, it's just about the greatest thing you've ever tasted?

categories:50 promises,at my house,fall,for sale,recipes,show and tell | 7 comments

September 21, 2012

First of Fall

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Sun setting behind the swimming pool in our town.

Today we're going to play outside in flip-flops, put something on the grill, and say goodbye to summertime, because tomorrow is the first day of fall.

Hello, Fall!