Lemon coconut hot oil treatment

Not to brag, but I smell really good right now.  If I was a cannibal, I would eat my own head off.

Maybe it's not obvious from the picture, but this is a DIY hot oil scalp & hair treatment to quench my thirsty head.  I don't know if I'm part snake, but in the winter I start to feel like one.  So I looked into my pantry and thought I would put some food on my head.  You should see me when my lips are chapped, I just start smashing eggs into my face to treat that.

Lemon coconut hot oil treatment

4 tablespoons of coconut oil (I think promiscuous coconut oil is fine too)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

In a small bowl, measure 4 T coconut oil and heat in the microwave for about five seconds, until liquid and slightly warm.  Squeeze 1 T lemon juice into the oil and combine.  Using your hands, massage oil into scalp until evenly coated.  You may as well rub any excess into your hair since it looks like straw too.  Throw that free hotel shower cap you have been hoarding on your head for about a half hour or until you feel like washing your hair.  

Pumpkin Muffins

Our Thanksgiving with family got cancelled this morning, when North woke up with a fever of 102. The first few hours, we spent on the couch, trying to get him to eat or drink something. The poor guy even let his special ice cream breakfast turn to soup. It was disturbing. I didn't know who he was anymore.

Eventually, the tylenol kicked in and he started acting like himself. By the time I got back from the grocery store, he was asking to make pumpkin muffins. So we did and I was happy to see him wolf down two big ones in a row. The kid is on the mend for sure.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup fresh or canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil*
2 large eggs
3/4 cup white sugar sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray muffin tin with oil.

In medium bowl, combine flours & baking powder.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Divide batter among muffin cups, then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.

Sausage squash soup with rosemary

My in-laws brought us a hefty haul of apples, squashes and cabbage back from New York yesterday, which translated to lots of delicious smells in the kitchen today. I've made squash soups before that were good, but became boring or too sweet after a few bites. So I thought it might be interesting to process the squash and broth into a nice creamy texture, but then add some sausage, onion and potato for a more chunky texture. The results were a success, even if a bit labor intensive and left behind a sink full of dirty dishes.

4 lbs. squash (butternut or acorn)

1 lb. bass farm hot sausage (or similar ground sausage)

3 small-medium yukon gold potatoes, cubed bite-size

1 onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic

32 oz. chicken broth

1 sprig fresh rosemary (3-4 inches?)

1/2 tsp. thyme

Preheat oven 400 degrees.

Half squash & seed. Place squash flesh side up in shallow baking dish with 1 inch of water in bottom. Rub 1 tablespoon of butter over squash and sprinkle with rosemary, salt and pepper. Bake 30-40 minutes or until tender. Set aside.

Cook sausage and drain fat. Add onion, garlic, rosemary, potatoes and saute 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Set aside.

In large pot, add chicken broth, thyme and softened squash, heat through. Process in blender, in batches and pour pureed squash back into pot. Add sausage mixture to pot and allow to reheat 10-15 minutes. Serves 5-7

Oatmeal Cranberry Raisin Spice Cookie

If you need a cheap, but thoughtful gift for someone on your Christmas list, these cookie gift jars are easy to make.  And everybody likes cookies right?  Well, except Nazis.  So if you have a Nazi on your Christmas list, you might want to stick with a swastika embroidered oven mitt.  But everyone else would probably love these oatmeal spice cookies

1 cup flour mixed with

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda and

1/2 teaspoon sale

2 cups old fashioned oats

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup raisin, cranberry, dried apple or the like

1/2 cup white sugar

Layer ingredients in order given in a one quart wide-mouth canning jar.  Gently press each layer before adding the next one.

Decorate jar and add this gift tag:

Oatmeal Cranberry Raisin Spice Cookie Mix

Empty jar of cookie mix into large mixing bowl and combine.  Add 1 1/4 stick melted butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Mix until blended.  For best results, chill for at least a half hour. Shape into balls.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.  Cool a few minutes before removing from cookie sheet.  Makes about 3 dozen.

Focaccia Bread

With the cooler weather upon us...okay...I've got to be honest, I went for a walk yesterday in shorts and a tank top. Little North was strapped to me and actually fell asleep in his carrier as we walked. His legs still kicked with every step I took. I guess babies sleep walk too. I cupped my upper arm around his head, slowed my pace and savored every detail of his sweet slumber.

I had to share that moment. But that's not why I started writing this post. I wanted to share a yummy recipe for focaccia bread to help transition into you into cooler temperature foods. I've already made a few batches of soup and this bread fits so perfectly with it. I tried three different recipes, each of which turned out tasting like pretzel, cracker and finally, bread. Funny thing is that we enjoyed all of them with our soup, even the batch that was more like hardtack. But what follows is the recipe for the bread version. Enjoy!

Focaccia Bread

1 (1/4 ounce) packet active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1 tsp. white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat flour (or you can just use all white flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil
dash crushed red pepper
1 dash black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese


Mix the yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes until bubbles begin to form. In large mixer bowl, stir together flour, salt, garlic powder, thyme, basil, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Add the yeast mixture and vegetable oil to the dry ingredients and combine on low speed. When dough has pulled away from the sides and is sticky to the touch, plop it onto a floured surface and knead only until smooth and elastic. Oil a glass mixing bowl, put the dough in the bowl and coat the dough with the oil by turning it in the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and allow it to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Preheat over to 425 degrees. Punch down the dough in the bowl and dump it onto a greased standard baking sheet. Pat dough until it covers the entire baking sheet. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10-13 minutes until the cheese browns.

Because everyone really is a winner

By the looks of this picture, I should be taking a nap. Hello bags under my eyes! But I'm not, I'm making cookies! Just in time for the spooktacular holiday that is upon us, I wanted to share the most delicious and easiest pumpkin cookie recipe with you. So easy is this recipe that you could make it with as little as 2 ingredients: one box of spice cake mix and one 15 oz. can of pumpkin.

But here in the Killer household I like to kick things up a notch; not to mention plagiarize the catchphrases of the Food Network chef that is annoying me the most that day. I also like to make things difficult and to get rid of things that have been taking up space in my pantry. Point is, if you are feeling saucy and throwing these cookies together, you might want to try adding in any of the following: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, walnuts, pecans, cranberries, raisins, a touch of orange zest or cream cheese frosting on top.

Because it's Halloween, I wanted to make mine chocolatey. I lurve chocolate.

Here's the recipe I used:

1 box spice cake mix
1 15 oz. can pumpkin

1/2 bag semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 bag butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Now this is the hard part, open the spice cake mix and dump it into your mixer bowl. Are you still with me? Now open the can of pumpkin and plop it on top of the cake mix. In that order! Geez, do you want worlds to collide if you happened to put the pumpkin in first? Now turn your mixer on slowly! Let the magic combine and then add in the chips. BAM! Cookie dough!

Grease your cookie sheet. Drop the cookie dough onto the sheet using a half filled ice cream scoop or a cookie scoop if you're a fancypants. Bake 9 to 12 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them to cool on your wire rack or as we like to call it, paper towel. Once they are cooled, package them up and give them to that nice Sonya girl. Oh nevermind, I don't need anymore...(makes about 2 dozen)

Stuffed Delicata Squash

This is a delicata squash. The outside flesh is edible and delicious so you don't have to worry about peeling it off before working with the squash. There are seeds inside that must be scooped out much like a butternut squash though. Still, the delicata squash is often overlooked, which is a shame because they are so easy to prepare.

Here is that same delicata squash filled with sausage stuffing cooking on the grill.

I cut the squash in half lengthwise and scooped out the seeds. Once the seeds were out, I couldn't resist filling up the little cavity I had created in it. So I grabbed some stuffing out of the pantry and prepared enough to fill up each cavity. Because I had it on hand, I also threw some sausage, tomatoes and onion in the pot of stuffing too.

I coated each squash half generously in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder and threw them on the grill for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. You could also bake the squash cut side up in 1/2 inch of water for a half hour at 350 degrees in your over if you prefer. I stabbed them a bit with a fork to see if they were tender enough and took them off the grill. Then I stuffed them with the prepared stuffing and put some cheese on top before putting them back on the grill for another 5 minutes or so.

We have more delicata coming tomorrow from the CSA tomorrow. I'm thinking I might fill that cavity with rice and beans this week. Or maybe some garlic walnut quinoa?

Sun Pickles

I got another double share this week from my CSA. That means I've got a ton of vegetables to use up in a short amount of time. So I scoured the internet tubes for an easy pickle recipe that could be completed during one baby nap. I found a recipe that uses the power of the sun rather than hours on a stove top and I tweaked it to my taste and what was in my pantry. I opened the jars for a taste test last night after they had been sunning for only two days. The pickles were already pretty tasty.  With confidence, I bring you:

Sun(ya) Pickles

pint size mason jars with lids (old food jars work well too)
4 cups water
2 cups white vinegar
1/8 cup sea salt
1 teaspoon dill
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
1 tablespoon celery salt
6-10 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
10-15 medium sized cucumbers, quartered lengthwise
2-3 jalapeno peppers, optional

Scrub cucumbers and peppers and rinse thoroughly. Place vinegar, water and sea salt in saucepan and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, quarter the cucumbers and cut up the peppers and garlic. Add half of the dill, garlic powder, seasoned salt, celery salt and garlic to the jars. Pack the pickles and peppers into the jars. Then top with the other half the spices and garlic.

Once brine comes to a boil, remove from stove and pour over the cucumbers until the jar is full. Top with lid and shake. Place full jars outside in the sun for 3 days, turning a couple times a day. After 3 days of sun, put pickles in refrigerator. Pickles will stay fresh for up to 1 year.

Fruity Nutso Baked Oatmeal

Warning: This post contains the words breastfeeding and milk. It also contains the word oatmeal, which is delicious.

When I knew I was going to breastfeed, I researched foods that would be good for me to eat to help with milk supply issues. So far, I have had success drinking fennel tea and chamomile tea, especially when North was a newborn (thanks Sabine!) Gripe water often contains ginger, fennel, chamomile and bicarbonate. So it makes sense that drinking these teas would have a calming effect on a breastfed baby. Or maybe it's all placebo effect. I'm no scientist.

Beer is also said to help with mom's milk supply. Or at least that's what I tell myself when I'm sitting in my inflatable pool drinking an icy beer on a 95 degree day while North naps inside the house.

Another food that I use for its magical breastfeeding properties is oatmeal with fruit and nuts. The oatmeal and nuts are fantastic sources of protein. I have found that most of the extra calories I need for breastfeeding are best found in protein rich food.  Starting off your day with so much protein can help to curb your appetite later in the day too.

As a matter of fact, two night ago, I forced Dave into a Wendy's drive thru at gunpoint because I needed a bacon cheeseburger at 9:00 PM. Cravings can be just as bad as the ones felt during pregnancy, especially if your child is going through a growth spurt.

But back to delicious oatmeal. I eat it almost every day. This recipe is so much better than the kindergarten paste oatmeal I sometimes have to eat at work. Once you try steel cut oats, you may never go back to quick oats again. You could use all steel cut oats in this recipe (increase the milk 1/4 cup if you do). I tweaked the recipe a bit so that I could get rid of some reserves of rolled oats in my pantry. Steel cut oats are also a bit expensive, but worth it. In case you have a hard time finding them, they are also called coarse-cut oats, Irish oats, or pinhead oats. The latter is kind of mean though.

I would recommend using peaches or pears for the fruit and almonds for the nuts. So so good! Dave even ate it with ice cream last night because he is trying to increase his milk supply too. Anyway, I'll shut up now, here's the recipe.

Fruity Nutso Baked Oatmeal

1 1/2 cups steel cut oatmeal
1 cup rolled oats
3 cups milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup fruit (can be fresh, canned or dried)
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans and almonds work great)

Combine ingredients and let sit for 15 minutes. Pour mixture into a 9 X 13" glass baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Leftovers can be refrigerated up to a week or frozen. Best served warm with milk. Serves 9.

Easy Stuffed Peppers

I compared my method of making stuffed peppers with other recipes online to see if anyone had any better ideas on the subject. So you could say I'm an expert now. Or I could say it for you. I can't declare my recipe the most delicious, but I can tell you that it's simple and requires the least amount of work and dirty dishes at the end of the day. You probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry already:

6 medium peppers, rinsed and cored

46 ounces tomato juice

1/2 cup dry rice, prepared according to directions

1 cube chicken bouillon

1 pound ground turkey

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1/3 cup finely diced onion

2 cloves garlic

worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt and pepper

Prepare your rice according to the directions. I throw a chicken bouillon cube in with the water and rice for a little more fla-vah. While that is cooking, rinse and core your peppers. You know, speaking of researching other recipes online beforehand, one particular recipe instructed me to cut the top inch of the pepper off and discard. Holy waste of pepper! Instead, I used a tiny pairing knife and cut a circle around the stem until it pulled up. Then I used my fingers to get all the seeds and gave the inside a quick rinse. Perhaps a little more work, but much less wasteful.

Once your rice is finished cooking, throw it in with the raw ground turkey, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, worcestershire sauce, cumin and seasoning. Combine it---use your hands, they're the best cooking tool you have. Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture and set them in a large pot. I also stuffed a yellow squash and a tomato, for fun. Weeeeee! Pour tomato juice over the peppers. Maybe fill the spaces between the peppers, with the squash entrails, chopped tomatoes and or some cut up potatoes for a one pot meal. Like the way I used a pot lid for a plate? Classy right? You should come to my house where I make guests eat directly out of the pot so as not to dirty any dishes.

I cooked these on the stove top, covered on medium low heat for about an hour. Top with cheese and eat.

Creamed Cukey Tom Salad

This salad couldn't be any easier. My sister in law served it to me a few weeks ago and I was all, "please sir, may I have some more" because I like to quote Oliver!  (I've never understood the exclamation point in this musical title.  Does that make it sound more exciting?) She took pity on me and told me it was just cucumbers, seasoned salt and sour cream. I've adapted the recipe a little today because I need to get rid of more vegetables than that:

1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 dollop of sour cream
1 tsp white vinegar
seasoned salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/4 cup onion (optional)
1/3 cup chopped tomatoes (optional)

Directions: combine, let it hang out for a bit and eat.

Cold veggie pasta salad

1/4 box mini fusilli

1/4 cup onion, diced

1/2 cup pepper, diced

1/3 cup green creme peas (black-eyed peas would be a great sub)

1/2 cup cucumber, peeled and diced

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

3 tablespoons italian dressing

I'm really blowing your mind by posting a pasta salad recipe today huh? What next Sonya, a recipe for toast? I know this sounds kind of plain jane, but it had been awhile since I made a fresh pasta salad without using a box as a crutch. I don't know why; making a fresh salad is about the same amount of work as a box. Remember that cute baby I had recently? Let's blame him.

So I boiled the pasta according to the directions on the box and threw in the green creme peas I had shelled at the same time. If you substitute garbanzo beans or black eyed peas, this step is not necessary. Also, I would use more beans if I were you. But I was me and got tired of shelling the creme peas, so I used a smaller amount. I could taste the laziness in my final salad let me tell you, yet it was still quite delicious.

Anyway, while the pasta cooked, I diced my veggies up nice and pretty until the timer went off. Then I drained the pasta and peas and ran cold water over them to stop the cooking process. I dumped everything into a pretty bowl and doused it with some poppy seed dressing (basic Italian would work too.) If I had some Cha Cha dressing, I would have poured the entire bottle all over my salad. I picked some up when I visited my dear friend in San Francisco and we finished it in no time sadly. If you ever see this stuff in a store, pick up a bottle, you will not regret it!

I promise more dishes that do not contain almost exact ingredients next time. I confess I made this salad at the same time that I made the garden pasta with bacon. My multitasking is astounding no? No?

Summer garden pasta with bacon!

Remember last week when I first prepared pink eye purple hull peas? Well, I believe there was talk of bacon! Then Dave's Tia Vicky in the Dominican Republic sent an email recommending we mix the peas with short cooked pasta and parmesan cheese. Yum! Who am I to resist?

So I boiled up some peas in lighty salted water just as before. I let them boil for about 7 minutes while I fried up 5 strips of center cut bacon. I also had a pot of water coming to a boil so it was ready for pasta.

The pan I used for bacon was big enough that I could eventually throw everything into it and use up the grease and yummy bits already in the pan. One thing that bugs me about cooking shows is the sheer number of pans and bowls used during the cooking process. Obviously Alton Brown is not washing his own dishes man. That guy could make some oatmeal and somehow dirty every dish, pan and possibly brick (he loves to use bricks in his oven) in his kitchen. So anytime I can get a pot or pan to do double duty, I do it as a slap in the face to Mr. Good Eats.

But back to the serious matter that is at hand. With the bacon fried and resting on paper towels, I threw the boiled and drained peas into the big ol' pan with all the bacon 'juice'. That makes it sound healthier right?

In the same pan, I tossed some garlic, onion, squash, orange and red cherry tomatoes, basil and salt and pepper. Most any vegetable would work in this dish for sure, so whatever you've got would probably be tasty. I topped everything with a bit of the green tube parmesan....because that is all I had on hand ok? Remember my assignment to use only what I had? Well, sorry I don't keep fancy pants parmesan reggiano stocked at the ready at all times mister fancy boy! Confession: I like Easy Cheese too.

Summer garden pasta with bacon!

1/2 lb pink eyed purple hull peas,
5 strips of bacon
1/4 box mini fusilli pasta, cooked according to package
1-2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/3 cup onion, diced
1 squash cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half
4 basil leaves, chiffonade (shredded if you don't speak fancy)
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

I would have gladly paid hundreds of dollars for this dish in a restaurant. OK, well I would have paid like $15 for such local fresh ingredients for sure. But how nice to enjoy a healthy and delicious meal from the comfort of my couch with a crying baby nearby? You cannot put a price on such ambiance. I could have lied and said we sipped wine and slowly savoured each bite while enjoying the view of the ridgeline off our back deck. But somehow the truth makes me smile more.

Farmer North

And with one little picture, Grandmas all over the world just burst into a zillion pieces from cuteness overload. Just so you know, I had to pry that creme pea out of his tiny farmer hand, otherwise he may have clutched it all night.

As you can see from the bounty above, we have a ton of fresh produce this week. My lovely sister-in-law is also a member of our CSA and they are traveling this week to New York state, so she offered us her share. I'm going to challenge myself to cook only with ingredients that I already have on hand and pair them with as much of this local produce as possible. I enjoy cooking with basic staples available almost anywhere because you don't always need expensive ingredients to make delicious food. Plus, I love the frugality of it all.

I will take pictures and post the rough recipe for each dish created. Maybe it will inspire other households to take on the same challenge and use up stuff they've already got on hand or stop by a local farmer's market. Or maybe these recipes will spark a new idea for how to use up veggies from your garden. Lord knows I need some tips myself because currently I have tomatoes coming out of my wazoo. (Please note, wazoo is in the dictionary.)

Anyway, be forewarned that I don't really follow recipes when I cook, I just start looking around to see what I've got and throw it in. So the measurements that I include in these recipes are approximate. A lot depends on personal taste and yours may be different than mine.

This brings to mind something I've heard people say that steams my buns a bit. They claim that they are overweight because of the cheaper processed foods their meager budget forces them to buy. I'm here to yell from my soapbox, that is a load of manure. Dave and I have spent $2 on a pot of lentil soup and eaten a low calorie and nutritious dinner for days! You can cook healthy and thrifty meals for pennies if you plan right. I hope the recipes that follow in the coming days help to drive that point home.

Whew, sorry to get so preachy.  I feel pretty strongly about processed food and the link to obesity apparently.  As always, I'd love to hear any other ideas anyone has for using up these veggies too!

One-eyed purple people eater

Membership with our CSA is wonderful so far. This spring, we enjoyed fresh lettuce, onions, potatoes, fennel, all kinds of lettuce and did I mention lettuce? The two heads of lettuce a week really was a godsend though and helped me burn through a lot of baby weight very quickly. Now that summer is here, this second leg of the CSA is providing the bounty I was hoping for. From tomatoes to okra, squash to cantaloupe, we're eating very well in the Killer household.

This week's experiment was pink eye purple hull peas. They're a beautiful southern pea similar to a black-eyed pea. Once I received these and properly staged them for a pretty picture, I shelled each pod while I wore North facing outward. He's a big boy now. He didn't like hulling peas. At all. But boy where they pretty when I was done.

I threw them into a pot of lightly salted water I had on the stove and let them boil for about 5 minutes. Then I grabbed a carrot, peeled it and diced it up and threw it in the pot too. Crazy I know, but I let them cook for 5 more minutes.

After about 10 minutes of boiling, I drained them and threw them in a little frying pan. I threw in some garlic, onion, jalapeno, butter, salt and pepper. My kitchen became very dirty after throwing so much food around but that is the only verb I know. Anyway, I let everything hang out on medium heat until the onions cooked up. You see how casual I am about this cooking thing? It's like Rachel Ray, except I'm not as annoying and I accidentally leave the burners on all the time.

This alone was fantastic and I may have complimented myself aloud throughout the dinner eating process. But I meant to cook some bacon before I even threw the veggies in the pan. Then I would have cooked the peas in the grease, omitted the butter and crumbled bacon over the cooked veggies. It might be for the best that I forgot because I hear people can spontaneously explode if they eat too much bacon-infused deliciousness. There's always next week's produce to see if our mouths can handle that much awesome.