Alena & Mia Rose having fun with face paint at the Children's Museum :)

Mia Rose having fun painting her face & dressing up :)

Recall due to undeclared MILK & Soy Marco Polo Shrimp Snack's

This recall for Shrimp Snacks was released late last night. Please click on link for details.

Golden Pacific Foods, Inc. Issues Allergy Alert for Undeclared Milk and Soy in Marco Polo Brand Shrimp Snacks
Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:40:00 -0500

Chino, California (April 2, 2010) -- Golden Pacific Foods, Inc. is recalling Marco Polo Brand Shrimp Snacks sold as Original, Onion & Garlic Flavored and Bar-B-Que Flavored, because they may contain undeclared milk and soy. People who have allergies to milk and soy run the risk of serious or life-threatening reaction if they consume these product.

Leek "Quiche" (Lauchkuchen)

I love leek and so does the rest of the family. This quiche (for lack of better words it really is not a quiche more like a savory pie) is easy, and delicious.

Here is what you need

Dough

2 Cups Flour

2 Tbls Olive Oil

3/4 Cup of lukewarm water

1/4 Teaspoon Yeast

Mix all ingredients together until you have a smooth dough.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and let raise at a warm spot (I usually make the dough in the morning)

Filling

4 or more thick stalks of leek cut into chunks (I use the entire leek)

1/2 Bouillon cube (I like Rapunzel brand Vegetable Broth)

3/4 Cup of Tofutti Sour Cream

2 Eggs

Salt, pepper, paprika

Optional add-ons

- Speck cut up in small cubes, and/or

- Emmenthaler Cheese

• Put a little oil in a pan and heat it up.
• Add leek and cover until soft
• Dissolve bouillon cube in a little bit of water and add to leek
• Uncover pan with leek, put heat on low, and let water evaporate. This should take about 1o minutes
• Put leek in a bowl, let it cool off a little and mix with Tofutti Sour Cream
• Add the two eggs
• If using add Emmenthaler and/or Speck
• Season with pepper, paprika and salt

Preheat oven to about 400 F (200 C)

• Roll out the dough on put it firmly into a Springform Baking Pan
• Pour the leek mixture on top of the dough and fold excess dough over the leek mixture (or you can also roll it up, etc.)
• Bake Quiche/Pie/Kuchen for 30 - 40 Minutes

I usually serve it with either a salad, or sauteed greens. Let me know if you try this :)

What's for dinner?

Tuesday is always an exciting day for me as it is the day we receive our box of produce. With the addition of the weekly produce box, I have changed my prior old habit of writing a meal plan the beginning of the week. The produce box opens a whole new world of options :)

This past delivery we got mushrooms, leek, rhubarb, salad greens, chard, fruit, cabbage, and a ton more. So usually when there are mushrooms my first thought is to make Risotto. I love Risotto - so easy, yet satisfying and delicious :) But you know what? My lovely husband actually balked at Risotto "...risotto again..." he said - and that even so we only eat it about once a month, OK I admit sometimes twice but it is just so, so good. So I was in pickle (isn't that what you say?) but I am the proud owner of a Joy of Cooking and quickly found a recipe for Mushroom Ragout to be served with Polenta. I added a salad and it was very good. The recepie of course had a lot of dairy but I just swapped it out with Earth Balance and Tofutti Sour Cream. Worked out well...

The other day we had Leek Quiche, the cabbage became "Cabbage with Pork and Potatoes" and the rhubarb pie became a "Rhubarb Meringue Pie" which we just ate :) I posted the recipe for the "Rhubarb Meringue Pie". Here is the link --> http://bit.ly/bjjwM7

Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese's & St. Cupcake

Mia Rose along with the entire family was invited to a Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese's. I have never been to a Chuck E Cheese's and was not very optimistic that the girls would be able to eat there. The good news is that I quickly received an e-mail response back from "Chuck E. Cares" which included a breakdown of all the foods and the allergens. I have to say that I found the quick and detailed response very impressive. The kids can eat the usual things i.e. Pizza without cheese, pepperoni and sausage are both OK. Original Chicken Wings are OK, but not the Boneless Wings (?!), etc. Turned out that neither girl ate anything at the party, but each ate a slice on the way home.

We - as we often do - brought along cup cakes for the girls. This time I stopped at St. Cupcake in Northwest Portland. Such a fantastic place...all they have are cup cakes and they surely are delicious. There are - of course - vegan cupcakes and we were lucky that at 5 PM there were 6 left :) Ron along with a snoring Mia Rosie waited in the car while Alena and I got the cupcakes. What do you think Alena chose??? Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting and while we were waiting she watched them bake the dot sized cupcakes. Yummy!!! Check out their web-site

--> http://www.saintcupcake.com/ the cupcakes are really as good as they look and they also deliver throughout the United States. I was quite impressed when I just saw that...

As for Chuck E. Cheese's well, I will be honest and hope that nobody will take offense but I will never voluntarily be back there. St. Cupcakes however is another story...and yes, the girls had fun but I think that they were overstimulated with the different sounds, noise, lights, etc. well, at least I was...

Chocolate Easter Bunnies and other goodies

Easter is right around the corner and I have to admit that the girls never had chocolate Easter Bunnies. Not, because we do not want them to eat chocolate but because I did not find them. Maybe I just did not look hard enough before. Most of the dark chocolate ones contain milk powder and the ones containing butterfat make me just a bit leery, so I stay away from chocolate containing butterfat. In any case, earlier this week we were at New Season's and I did not find any "safe" chocolate bunnies; yesterday we were at Fred Meyer's and you know what they carry a dark chocolate bunny from Lindt. I actually think, that this is the same one they sell for Christmas as Reindeer :) Seriously, I got the girls the Reindeer's for St. Nikolaus and was laughing so hard that the chocolate itself looked like an Easter Bunny. So in any case, Lindt is thankfully selling the Easter Bunny shape not only wrapped as a Reindeer but also rightfully wrapped as an Easter Bunny. Yay....so there it is. First chocolate Easter Bunnies for our girls. Here is the link - and nutritional information is also on this site http://www.lindtusa.com/product-exec/product_id/251/category_id//nm/100g_Gold_Bunny_Dark_Chocolate

The other all time favorite in our house are of course Jelly Beans, and Pez Dispensers. The girls love them. Other "safe" items I found at Fred Meyer's were Bubble Gum Eggs which I don't find that thrilling, but the girls would surely love them :)

Have a great day everyone!

Spring break - Fun at the mountain

It's spring break this week and we just got back from a fun get away to the mountain. The mountain for all of you not living in Portland, is Mt. Hood and the surrounding vicinity. It is actually only an hour drive from our house, but so fun. We stayed for four days at a cabin and had so much fun watching wildlife, walking, sledding, and even hiking...

We looked into a stream at Wildwood. A big window is installed below a stream and you can actually look into the stream. The next day we drove up to the mountain and went sledding. This was the first time we took the girls sledding and both had so much fun. Eventually both of them sled down alone. The only challenge - for Mia Rosie - was getting back up the hill. So we took turns walking or sledding (yup - the parental units loved it too :) ) down the hill to lend Mia Rosie a hand to get back up. Our final activity of the trip was a hike along the Salmon River. It was amazing - the forest is so lush and green; butterflies were everywhere. Alena and I were expecting to see fairies while Ron and Mia Rosie went looking for salamanders. Neither of us succeeded. Mia Rose walked the entire way (we did not go that far) it was great! It feels so good to be able to go back out into nature. We love it!!!

The only issue with going out the mountain is that food is very, very limited. The girls wanted ice cream badly and there is no soy, rice, etc. ice cream available. But, the store sold individual servings of Raspberry Sorbet which both of them loved. Of course they originally wanted chocolate, or strawberry, or lemon but the only flavor that was safe was raspberry. What is amazing to me is that it was not a big deal. They both said "oooohhh that's too bad" but that was it and they were both happy with their raspberry sorbet.

The food options are limiting and we brought everything with us. After sledding went for lunch. The menu had several options for the kids, and even on the kid's menu. The options on the kid's menu were - pizza, or ribs. Both girls chose ribs with french fries. Mia Rose loved the ribs, while Alena loved her fries...So, if you are in Government Camp and are looking for good food for all as well as great beer should check out http://www.iceaxegrill.com/.

Alena on the Trapeze - the Performance

Finally the big performance was here...this little clip shows Alena on the trapeze. It's a little dark but thankfully she is wearing one of her favorite colors :).

This was the beginning of the show....Alena is in front wearing the lavender top and dark pants.

The end of the show :) - I am so proud of my little girl....

Perdue Farms is recalling Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage Due To Undeclared MILK

Please click on Link for details.  

Indiana Firm Recalls Fresh Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage Products Due To an Undeclared Allergen
Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:15:01 -0500

Perdue Farms, Inc., a Washington, Ind., establishment, is recalling approximately 10,368 pounds of fresh sweet Italian turkey sausage products because they contain an undeclared allergen. The product was prepared using an ingredient blend that contained milk, a known potential allergen, which was not declared on the label.