Making for Dinner

These are from the Narnia cookbook. I listed the ingredients and simplified the instructions, and I've tweaked the soup to make it easier--I'm not making my own broth, just using bouillion and adding chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. I have no idea how to spell bouillion. Yes, I could get up and look on the jar, but I'm too lazy. :)

Oatcakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Sift together:
2 c flour (we used a quarter whole wheat, the rest unbleached)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Rub in with fingers (I used a mixer instead):
6 Tablespoons butter
6 Tablespoons oil (instead of shortening)

Mix in:
2 c rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 c sugar

Add:
1/4 c milk (we used soy milk)

Knead until it holds together, roll out to 1/4 inch thick, cut into small rounds. Bake 10 minutes until they just begin to brown. Makes 36 oatcakes.

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Cock-a-Leekie Soup

1 bunch leeks, diced (3 or 4 large leeks, less than a pound) cut off green tops, wash well to remove sand
1 pkg chicken (trying 2 chicken breasts) cut into pieces
1/2 c quick-cooking brown rice
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
12 pitted prunes
8 c chicken broth (trying vegetable bouillion)
parsley to garnish

Cook on high in crock pot for 4-5 hours

Edited to add our results:
The oatcakes were wonderful! Light yet hearty, just the right touch of soft sweetness without being overly sweet. Using oil (no trans fat!) instead of shortening worked fine.

The soup was good, too. Using chicken breasts instead of juicier dark meat was fine, and the soup isn't as fatty. It was too salty, though - I think that, if I use bouillion, I need to omit the salt. And Tim says it could have used a pinch of powdered cloves, which we apparently added last time.

New Favorite

Miss M's new favorite book: The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. She got it for her birthday and has been asking me to read it over and over ever since. She asks for 'tewwit seed" and she laughs at each page as everybody tells the little boy that his carrot seed won't come up. It must be two-year-old humor?

Brother L's Beowulf Character

You scored as The Dragon. Ancient, chaotic, and a bit mysterious is the Dragon figure. Awakened from your happy slumber upon a pile of gold, you go about the country slaying its occupants. Beowulf manages to kill you, but not before you ensure his death. Congrats. The Dragon 75% Grendel 50% Wiglaf 50% Hrothgar 42% Wealhtheow 25% Beowulf 25% Grendel's Mother 0% If You Were in Beowulf... created with QuizFarm.com

The Beowulf Quiz

You scored as Grendel. Anti-social and cruel, you are Grendel. When the Danes started having a little too much fun in their fancy-pants Golden Hall, you decided to take them down a few notches by killing bunches of them...and yes, eating them. Some upstart Geat named Beowulf rips off your arm, though, and you slink off to die alone. Grendel 75% The Dragon 67% Hrothgar 67% Wealhtheow 50% Beowulf 50% Wiglaf 33% Grendel's Mother 33% If You Were in Beowulf... created with QuizFarm.com

GRRRRR!!!

If I Were In Beowulf...

You scored as Wiglaf. Loyal and brave in your own right, you are Wiglaf, one of Beowulf's Geats. You are the only one of Beowulf's hand-picked troop who stood by his Lord's side as he faced the dragon. After Beowulf's death, you rebuke those who fled when they were needed most. Wiglaf 67% The Dragon 67% Grendel 58% Beowulf 58% Wealhtheow 50% Hrothgar 42% Grendel's Mother 25% If You Were in Beowulf... created with QuizFarm.com

Staying healthy

From I Have to Say - herbal health remedies for avoiding viruses this season.

Baby's Got Bible . . .

This was on a message board I frequent. It's a rap music video, very funny!
http://www.unc.edu/~shoyle/BigBibles.wmv

The New Doll

Miss M is enjoying being a little mother to her "l'il bay-bay." My sister gave us a toy high chair and cradle that her own girls had played with, and we brought those upstairs this evening. She knew exactly what to do with them! The cradle used to be mine, it was a Christmas present when I was a girl.

These are pictures are from just before she had a fit of frustration because the tray for the high chair won't stay up.

Miss M's Birthday!

I created a page to journal her second birthday. It has pictures from her whole day!

Narnia Feast

Periodically, the kids (my boys and their friend) like to do a Narnia Feast. They dress up in Medieval costumes and make medieval-type food, usually using some recipes from the Narnia Cookbook (we got it a couple years ago new, but it went out of print and used copies are now selling for $150!). The kids decided to schedule a feast for yesterday. This time, they did a lot of the planning, preparation and cooking. It was a little last minute, and we still hadn't decided which house to do it in by that morning, but it went off well, and was pronounced "the best Narnia Feast ever."

Boys with friend. (No, Anna Popplewell didn't come over; the face is superimposed to protect the identity of those who may wish to remain anonymous.)

The menu:

snack: oatcakes and oatmeal cookies with apple cider

First course: salad with herbs and olive oil/vinegar dressing
Second course: cock-a-leekie soup (chicken, leeks, prunes) in bread bowls (we used kaiser rolls)
Main course: meat pie (turkey, chicken, nuts, raisins), baked salmon, round loaves of bread
grape juice in pewter goblets

dessert: pumpkin pie, pecan pie, M&M's, hot chocolate and, of course, Turkish Delight!

The table

Something you don't see every day: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.

The toddler costumes from different angles. (More on her page.)

Cockaleekie soup in a bread bowl

The pies, salad, salmon and bread

Turkish Delight

And here are the ingredients for the Turkish Delight that we made. It's like jellied, lightly flavored candy squares. We used the recipe from the Narnia Cookbook, but we didn't have the lemons it called for, so we used the juice of oranges instead. And it turned out to be the best Turkish Delight we've made to date!

3 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup hot water
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons fresh juice from an orange
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
about 1/2 cup 10x confectioner's sugar

Dissolve gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water.
Bring sugar and 1/2 cup hot water to a boil, add gelatin dissolved in water, simmer for 20 minutes. (The gelatin stinks during the simmering period.)
Cool for 10 minutes, add orange juice and lemon extract.
Pour into a pan (or tupperware) that's been rinsed with water and is still wet, but not dripping. Cover and chill overnight.
The next day, use a hot, wet knife to cut it into squares. Roll squares in a plate of confectioners sugar.

Turkish Delight absorbs the confectioners sugar, so you have to eat it soon after making it, or re-roll in more confectioners sugar. The sugar coating can turn into a soggy, sticky mess if you wait too long to serve it.
Re-rolled, it keeps for a long, long time. We had a tupperware of Turkish Delight in our refrigerator for two years before it started to show signs of mold.

Meat Pasty

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup lard or cold shortening
5 Tablespoons water

Mix first three ingredients. Cut in shortening, mix in water with a fork. Work the dough as little as possible. Chill one hour.

1/2 lb top round, minced or chopped in food processor
2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes (to make 3/4 cup)
1 tablespoon butter
1 clove minced garlic
1 small onion, chopped (to make 1/4 cup)
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cover potatoes with boiling salted water, bring to a boil, simmer 10 seconds, then rinse with cold water.
Saute onion and garlic in butter.
Combine meat, potatoes, sauted onions, parsley. Salt and pepper.

Roll out pastry to 1/4 inch and cut out 4.5 inch circles. Brush edges with egg, add tightly-packed meat filling. Fold circles in half to close, press edges to seal. Poke steam holes.
Bake 10 minutes, reduce heat to 325 degrees, bake 30 minutes more.

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The Narnia movie is due to be released Dec 9, and we hope that Harper Collins will republish the Cookbook, maybe adding images from the movie.