Heidi Herrera Studio

The Sunday Night Post

All the babies are quiet and I have a moment before hitting the sac so here's a weekend nightcap.

Saturday morning we woke up, having stayed up late into the night watching the waters rush over the farmland in Japan. Neither my husband or myself wanted to go to bed but we finally did, feeling so very sad. First thing Saturday morning, I flicked on the television and pretty much kept one eye or one ear to the news all weekend long.

All this spring beauty we are blessed with is such a stark contrast to the chaos and destruction across the ocean. It definitely makes me feel so very grateful to be here in this moment, safe and warm and loving my little life with all my girlies and my honey. We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday morning at the farmer's market and while all the vendors have finally returned I still had my eye in the sky on the blooms and the bees.

 

 

Oh, I love you Spring!

Today was a bit of a gloomy day, but the girls were very happy to spend the day outside with me. They "helped" me rearrange my front patio. Actually, they were very helpful and cleaned all the snails out of the herb garden. How I wish I had gotten a picture, Emma is like the snail whisperer, cute and a little gross at the same time! We finally had to give up rearranging when the afternoon rain became a drenching drizzle.

It was dinner time anyway. Time for a Jamie Oliver recipe.

 

This was his mother's broth recipe from "Jamie's Dinners." It was the perfect choice. I figured I'd get my chicken cooked for the rest of the week's lunches, and make some soup for dinner too. I will admit that I added an extra bacon slice for additional flavor and adding the rosemary to the pot for the last 10 minutes is essential for flavor. 

I picked up some beautiful mushrooms from the market and I really wanted to try them in a soup. So once the chicken was cooked, I pulled it out, strained the broth, brought the broth back to a boil, then dropped in the pasta to cook. I melted some butter in a pan, sauted the mushrooms with some garlic and some sugar peas. Once the pasta was doneI threw everything into the pot with some of the chicken I shredded and yumm!

Dinner was awesome! Lily asked me to make it again. I just love it when my girls ask me to make something again! Winner, winner, chicken dinner (literally!).

Little Alina was wide awake and joined us for dinner. She's such a cutey pie!

Tomorrow we have a doctor appointment for her. Time to find out what is going on with her eye. I'm praying it's nothing to worry about and I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that we have an answer as to what it is by tomorrow so that I no longer have to worry. Fingers crossed.

 

 

Unintentional Cravings Spark New Cookie Recipe!

 
 

I was making PB&J for my girls the other day and I happened to get a dollop of pb on my finger, which I then of course had to lick off and for some reason it set off this overwhelming response of "omg, that is SO good, I must have more!" I wasn't craving it until I tasted it and then I just couldn't imagine not having it but WITH CHOCOLATE!

 Peanut butter and chocolate is literally one of those heaven sent flavor combos for me. It's an occasional treat that just hits the spot. It brought to mind peanut butter cups, but these days I can no longer imagine myself scarfing down Reeses, my sweet tooth has been seriously tamed over the last several years and they are over the top sweet to me. Plus, I wasn't about to drag my pregnant self to the store!

So then I thought of peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, but really they wouldn't be hearty enough, still a bit on the sweet side and hardly any fiber to speak of (yes, you know you're getting old when fiber begins to seem important!). So, of course, the natural progression from there was to add oats. They're filling, they have additional fiber and they help cut down on the whole sweet factor. Perfect!

Except that I had yet to come across one of these cookie recipes that I actually liked. I'm not saying it's not out there, but I am not so very patient when it comes to searching for recipes while I'm in craving mode. So...why not...I made my own. These cookies turned out SO yummy! They're pretty too!

 

 

Aren't they pretty? They're chewy with slightly crispy edges. They can be super chocolatey or not, depending on the amount of chips you add. I added a whole 12 oz bag and, surprsingly, my husband who is not a huge chocoholic made no mention of there being too many chocloate chips in his cookies...it was a first! Seriously, you should try them!

 

 

Oatmeal PB & Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup white whole-wheat flour (or unbleached white)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt (I used kosher) 
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (or less depending on taste)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl combine oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stir to combine.

Place butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and whip until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter and mix to combine. One at a time, add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing to combine after each additon. Finally, add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Scoop heaping teaspoons of the cookie batter and roll into a ball, spacing evenly on a cookie sheet, you should be able to get 12 cookies per sheet. *Note: you could probably just drop heaping teaspoon full size dollops of dough on the cookie sheet. However, I liked how uniformly they turned out when they were rolled buuuuut it does get your hands fairly messy!

Place baking sheet in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the edges of the cookies are a lovely golden brown. Remove from the oven, let cool several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

At this point you can now devour them and be sure to share with your family and friends because this recipe makes about 3 dozen and you really don't want to eat all of them by yourself, or maybe you do, but you know you really shouldn't! :)

I'm not a huge nuts-in-my-cookie fan, but these might be really good with 1 cup of raw or roasted peanuts and 1 cup of chocolate chips. Totally up to you!

Hope you enjoy!

Maybe I Should Rename My Blog to the Mishap Chef

Ok, I say that in the most humorous way possible. But sometimes navigating myself through the culinary world, that exists in my kitchen at least, becomes quite an adventure!

I have two little ones. One is four, the other is two. They continue to amaze me with their interest in the kitchen, they always want to know what's on the stove or in the oven. They always want to help in some way. As a mom who wants to share the wondrous fun of the kitchen, I try to involve them in any way possible.

Of course, I do the prep work like warming stuff, dicing, chopping...the typical dangerous to little hands and fingers type stuff. I really get a kick out of letting them play with their food though. So, last night, they topped their own pizza! Super fun for them and no danger to anyone...or so I thought!

First the cheese!

Then a nibble!

Then tomatoes, olives and mushrooms!

And another nibble! (That's the best part about helping mommy in the kitchen!)

Then bake in the oven at 500 degrees until the crust turns all brown and bubbly! But a word to the wise! If you happen to like to get your crust paper thin like this...

...please make sure your toppings are as dry as possible!!! i.e. use a very thin layer of thick sauce, don't pile the cheese and toppings too high! And most of all, make sure to remove those tomato seeds from those tomatoes!

I didn't remember to follow any of my advice and I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of the girl's pizza as I was taking it from the oven...the middle pulled right out of it on one side and cheese seemed to make it's way into the far depths of the oven. Oh, the pizza was still yummy and edible and we were able to salvage enough of a decent slice for a few pictures. But I gave myself a mentally forehead slap! Next time the girls help me make a pizza, I will be sure to keep the dough nice and thick!

That's the girl's pizza in the background, the parent's pizza up front...I forgot to take the tomato seeds out of our tomatoes too! Another mental forehead slap! Duh! Amazing how you forget things when you take a month or more off from making it. Perhaps a recipe card with tips for pizza making would come in handy in the future! :)

We rounded out our meal with watermelon topped with fresh mint, honey and rosewater...super yummy unless you're Lily and, well, she prefers hers plain thank you!

 
All in all, having the girl's help in the kitchen was the highlight of my evening. The pizza could have have been even more disastrous but it still would have been worth it to have those little hands helping. My goal is to get them involved a little more every day! Someday I might actually want to take a break from the kitchen and I'm gonna need a few little helpers to whip something up for dinner! *wink*

The pizza dough recipe I work with is from Fine Cooking Magazine's, Real Italian issue, and I love it because it rises anywhere from eight hours to three days in the fridge and is made all in my kitchen aid! With kiddos, fast and easy is best!

Cherry Pie Despite Me

I started cleaning like mad lately (nesting already?) and this morning was no exception. The kitchen has been my main target these days. So much happens in there, so it always needs cleaning! By the time I got to pitting cherries for my pie I think I was already a bit tired, but still determined. We have so many cherries, I can't stand to see them go to waste! So whatever we have post pie making is going in the freezer...for more pie of course!

Pitting cherries is tedious work. I tested out the straw poking method and that was a major flop and I could think of nothing better than cutting the cherries in half and pulling out the pit! T.e.d.i.o.u.s.! But I got to eat a few along the way and had plenty to share with the girlies.

My next major test came with the rolling of the dough, it just kept tearing...why oh why? Wetter dough maybe, better rolling pin pehaps, or just more practice and improved technique?

Then it seemed I didn't have enough filling...I think I could have doubled the cherries and still not filled the pie too full (I was feeling a little discouraged and thinking the worst at this point!). But, what's a girl to do when the dough is all rolled out and the filling all made? Well, I forged ahead! I poured in the filling that I had, topped it with my rolled out dough, crimped and baked!

And the house began to smell amazing!

And the pie baked beautifully!

And it looked amazing topped with vanilla ice cream!

And it tasted awesome! Just ask my husband! :)

Even I was impressed!

It truly pays to persevere! So, when you think it's all just gowing to fall apart or blow up in your face...you might come out the other side amazed and pleasantly surprised! I sure did!
  

Gooooooaaaaalllllll!!

 
Hah! had to play off the current world cup soccer craze. My poor husband, both USA and Mexico now out of the games. Sorry babe!

But seriously, goal for me today! I am so excited! I finally made a tart! Oh, and vanilla bean ice cream! Could I be more exclamation happy? Probably not!

 
We so needed that ice cream, it's 100 degrees outside today and the air conditioner is not so great at keeping up in this kind of heat!!!

This really was super yumm, the vanilla bean ice cream was perfecto! I will admit to wanting a more tender crust on my tart though...so that's the goal for the next one!

The ice cream recipe came from Alton Brown, it was the most easy ice cream I've ever made!! I used cherry preserves instead of peach, weird I know, but I thought perhaps since there were no eggs in the recipe, the preserves might play an important role, and I didn't have peach preserves! Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do in order to get her ice cream made!

The tart was pretty much made from Julia's Child's, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Except for the fact that I already heated up the house making the tart crust, so I improvised and made a fresh fruit tart with peaches and topped it with a mix of strawberry and raspberry preserves for the glaze. I was really happy with the results, so was the fam! Success!

Now all that's left to do is to take a dip in our little pool, *maybe* clean up a bit and get to painting and ALL my goals will be met for the day! Good weekend...even my little cold is starting to ease up a bit. Yay!

Dreaming of Disneyland

 
Phew, we just returned from five whole days in Disneyland!!! The girls LOVED it! One thing I learned for sure is that I have a pair of dare devil girlies! I can hardly wait to ride the rides with them on the next visit! Momma loves roller coasters and I was feeling a bit left out. But Lily rode so many roller coasters with her papa and Emma spun like a crazy girl on the teacups with her aunties! Next time will be momma's turn to share in the fun!!!

 

 
We have so many pictures with the characters it's sheer crazy photo overload!!!

 

Even Alex got to strut his stuff with Cruella DeVille!

 
Honestly, as tired as i was by the end of it all, I'm already missing Disneyland, with one exception...the food! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to be back home in my own kitchen making a simple pasta for the girl's lunch. I felt this huge sense of satisfaction!! Disneyland is great for the sweets, the cinnamon rolls are fabulous! But their real food just doesn't taste that great AT ALL! I know they try to cover the bases with bbq, mexican, creole, and the ususal chicken strips or chilli cheese fries, but they just strike out all over the place. Sorry Disney, you just don't cut it with this foodie!!! The kicker for me is that it costs an arm and a leg for this not-so-tasty fare!!

Now, Downtown Disney is a whole other story though. I was in love with the food at the Jazz Kitchen...especially the beignets. If I hadn't been feeling so "bleh" I might have remembered to actually take some food pictures. Oh well...there's always next time! I'm thinking two and half years would be perfect! Then Tower of Terror and all you other crazy rides here I come!!!

The Bagel Breakdown

 
These bagels from artisan bread in five minutes were good, make no mistake about it!!! Especially with strawberry cream cheese....

...but as I was making another batch this morning, I realized that I had made the dough recipe wrong from the start! Instead of using bread flour, I used all-purpose, so back to the kitchen I go to start a new batch of dough. Also, I was amazed this morning when one of my bagels turned out quite beautifully, as beautiful as any i've seen in stores or cafes...all the others have been a little lumpy looking. I think my beautiful bagel was the result of me letting the water boil instead of simmer. So, I'm looking forward to trying  another batch soon!

 
This was my much prettier bagel from this morning with cinnamon raisin cream cheese! yum!!

I Guess I've Been So Busy...

that I have completely forgotten to blog.

I've been cooking and gardening and walking and making new friends. It's been the best start to spring!

I learned how to make fallafel from scratch...so easy and completely worth the extra effort...

 

I started making bread, lots and lots of bread using this method, so you'll see way more bread show up here in the future!

 I've realized that I have all the igredients in my cupboard to make my own fantastic chai...seriously, why would I ever need to buy a box of it ever again?!?!?

I spent a little time on the front page of flickr! That was so much fun and I gained so many new flickr friends!

I made one of the best friends ever! Call it kismet, or whatever you want, but we just click and so do our kiddos! So looking forward to a super fun summer together!!!

I will definitely be making more of this by the boatload!!!

I really, really, really hope to have more photoshoots like this!!!!

And I seriously hope to be traveling to more magical places like this...

 

 Yay for spring and summer! I'm so excited it has finally arrived!!!  

It's Grey Today

Today is a very grey day outside, a big change from the last few days. It's fitting I suppose because I feel very glum. I'm a little (or a maybe a lot) tired today. I wanted so much to make lovely muffins and work on a project with my girls today and I did...it's just that I kind of feel like I had to push to keep going. These tired days are the hardest for me. I used to go non-stop, run, run, run and I do still have those days, but since I was diagnosed with MS, I have a lot less of the "go non-stop" days than I used to. It's pretty common with MS to be tired, feel fuzzy, scattered and get overwhelmed easily (this is totally my day today!) but it doesn't make me feel any  better about it. I can handle the tingles and numbness, which is pretty much my daily reminder of this disease, but please don't take away my energy! I need every bit of it to play with and enjoy my girls! Anyhow, enough with the pity party! Despite the glum me, we made these...

spicy chocolatey muffins

...the girls love to help pour in the ingredients and stir. When I pulled out the muffins, Lily said "wow, that's all the ingredients in there!"

and this...

...the girls helped me tea stain the coffee filters, I then threw them (the coffee filters, not the girls :)) in the oven at 200 degrees for a couple hours (I'm impatient like that!). As the girls napped, I put it together. It was supposed to be a little more green than this, I think it needed just another drop of dye...even still, I really like it, I think I'll make it into a topiary for my bedroom. The tutorial can be found on Alice's beautiful blog here.

Who said tired days couldn't be productive?!?!? I think it's the tired days that really help me appreciate the good ones even more!

A plan, a hiccup, a triumph!

   

Today I made crème brulée...twice! It began several months ago. I wanted Julia Child's, The Art of Mastering French Cooking. My husband, knowing this, forced me to get it on one of my particularly yucky days. As you can imagine, it brightened my mood instantly! I found crème brulée in the recipe index and decided that would be the very first recipe of hers I would attempt. As luck would have it, all my hinting (uh, whining more likely) either convinced my mother in law that I truly wanted a kitchen grade torch, or she just wanted to shut me up! But who cares, it is the best Christmas present I've ever gotten! Thanks grandma!

It started out well, heat cream, whip the yolks with the sugar, combine, add extract, heat on stovetop, chill, sprinkle with more sugar and torch!

That's me torching in pigtails! I'm thinking of starting a pigtail Tuesday series on flickr.

Anyhow, It looked pretty good, it did, but it wasn't...it resembled a very thick soup, not so good. *sigh*

But wait! We already invited our friends over for dinner...I just kept thinking of Kristina as I was preparing the crème brulée. She was so disappointed the last time we went out, she tried and hated the crème brulée at some restaurant, which shall remain nameless. So, we called, invited, invite accepted...but now no crème brulée? unacceptable! What's a girl to do? Aha, try again! To the store I went, cream, eggs, beer...uh...dinner was enchiladas, beans and rice, you can't skip the beer! And don't mention the fact that crème brulée does not go with mexican food...it was a last minute dinner invite, ok?

Ok, new recipe, this time Martha...she actually bakes her crème brulée, and it makes a bigger batch which = leftovers. :) Again, heat cream only this time add sugar and vanilla bean (first time ever with vanilla bean, go me!), whip the yolks with the sugar, combine, place in ramekins, place in waterbath, bake, chill, sprinkle with more sugar and torch!

We did the torching right at the table in front of our friends...nothing like dinner and a show! They cheered me on and got excited right along with me as my torching skills improved with each new heart shaped ramekin. Then, the taste test. Oh yeah, did I mention that I've never even tried crème brulée before? It's a good thing our friends were there, I wouldn't have know wether or not I did a good job...and did I? According to Kristina, it was the best crème brulée she had ever had. The number of "mmmm, this is so good" and "oh, i think this is the best" were pretty assuring. Success! And me, I had seconds.

Sadly, I failed with Julia, I guess I will just have to try another recipe of hers. Somehow, though, I doubt that will be too much of a problem.