Friday Night Fun...

I know, I know it is already Saturday night and I have fallen behind :)  In any case,  we had a communal dinner yesterday with our friends and neighbors.  The girls had great fun hanging out with their friends,  and we also got to enjoy some adult conversation. The four girls ate first, then had a treat of Almond Dream Praline Crunch Ice Cream - which by the way all of them loved - and then got to watch Tangled (I call it Rapunzel) along with some fresh popcorn.  Here is a picture of the girls at dinner

Alena and her friend Ana before sitting down for dinner

These two ladies just could not wait :) - Mia Rose and her friend Sophia

So, while the girlies enjoyed the movie we enjoyed a nice dinner with adult conversation.  Great start into the weekend.

Oh, oh, I almost forgot  - we had Polenta, mushrooms, salad, peppers, meatballs, and sausage for dinner. Yummy!

We went out on Thursday...

Alena had her "All about Alena" presentation in school today.  She showcased herself and put together a presentation with pictures as well as stories about her life.  The project was actually quite an undertaking as we went back to look at pictures from the time she was born until now.  We did have a lot of fun!

In any case,  she had a successful presentation and what better way to celebrate than with a dinner out.  We had dinner at Deschutes Brewery Public House here in Portland. http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/locations/portland - Both ladies chose to eat the kids Hamburger which on the menu is a Cheeseburger.  We are so proud of our girls - they ordered themselves "Kids hamburger without any cheese, or dairy on it because we are allergic".  Whoo-hoo...the waitress was amazing.  She double checked on the bun - so if you go and you cannot have the milk products be sure to order the burger with the Gluten Free Bun.  It is made with almond milk, instead of the cow :)

Look at the ladies - very happy with their Burgers :)

Tortilla Soup was for dinner this Wednesday

nice, and warm - perfect to warm us up on a chilly day. I made a cheater version. How? Well, I used Tortilla Chis instead of frying up fresh, crisp, Tortilla strips. It still was good. Onion, garlic, chili powder, salt, and peper.Added to it a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste - then four cups of chicken broth and finely chopped cilantro. I brought it to boil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes before adding a can of drained black beans, a can - small - of diced tomatoes, and a cup of - frozen - corn. Served it with lime wedges, chopped avocado, Toffuti sour cream, and tortilla chips on the bottom and on top of the soup. Nice, and warm...

Chicken, mushroom ragout on egg noodles with salad...

...was our Tuesday night dinner. I actually made the ragout already yesterday. Chicken thighs, crimini mushrooms, onions,a bottle of white wine, and -Tofutti - sour cream. It was in the oven for almost 2 hours yesterday and turned into a yummy dish. - I served it with egg noodles and the - mostly - usual salad...

Uncle Bens Whole Grain Rice Garden Vegetable - undeclared Milk

Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts Mars Food US Recalls Two Date Codes of UNCLE BEN’S Whole Grain White Rice Garden Vegetable Due to Undeclared Milk

Monday Night Dinner is not very exciting...

...I kid you not :) it was however liked by the entire family.  What was it?  Well, do I dare admit to it? Ha, ok ok it was - brace yourself - Mandarin Orange Chicken from Trader Joe's.  Every so often it is such a treat and it left us plenty of time to work on more stars for our windows :) Picture of those will follow soon...

In any case, dinner was Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken out of the freezer, served with Jasmine rice, and - finally - mixed green salad.  Not very exciting, but quite good!

Milk Free Weihnachtsbroetle - Christmas Cookies - and a busy Sunday...

...we - OK three of us - pretty much stayed home all day, and ended up being quite busy.  We started the day with making cookies.  Mia Rose was invited to another Birthday party today, so we decided that she would cookies along as a treat for herself and the others.  In preparation,  I had made the dough already last night, so this morning all we had to do is roll out the dough.  We took turns making the cut-outs.  Mia Rosie cut out the first portion, while Alena cut out the second portion.  Turned out to be a good solution :)

By the time the cookies were baked, frosted, and decorated it was time to take Mia Rose to the party.  The host planned on serving pizza, so I pre-ordered a Kids Pepperoni Pizza without cheese at Pizzicato which was right on the way to the party.  On our way to the party, we stopped to pick-up the pizza.  I dropped off Mia Rose, the pizza, cookies, and the usual talk in regards to milk, etc. As always,  she wanted me to leave as soon as possible...she had a good time.

I really wanted this post to be about the Galactosemia safe Weihnachtsbroetle - Cookies - we made yesterday and today.  So far, we have three kinds.  Haselnussmakronen - Hazelnut macaroon's -, Walnussguezli - Walnut Cookies, and Ausstecherle - Sugar Cookies.  What do you think? -  All turned out great - recipes are below.  I would love to hear from you - really :) Oh, and I plan on making a couple more. Just not sure what. - Probably Vanille Kipferl, and Zimtsterne - let's see...

Haselnussmakronen - Hazelnut Macaroon
4 Egg Whites beaten
150 - 200 gr. fine sugar
300 - 350 gr. finely ground hazelnuts
1/8 tsp cinamon
3-4 TBL ground chocolate - I use Ghiradelli's
whole hazelnuts for decoration for each piece

- beat the egg whites until they are very firm
- slowly pour in sugar, and cinnamon
- mix hazelnuts with chocolate, and carefully mix the nuts under the egg whites
- Pre-heat oven to 300 F
- using two teaspoons put little mounds on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Decorate each - if you like -
  with a hazelnut
- Bake for 20 - 25 minutes

Walnussguezli - Walnut Cookies
- 175 gr Flour
- 100 gr. finely ground walnuts
- 125 gr. sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 75 gr liquid vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance) slightly cooled
- 1 egg
To decorate -
- 1 egg beaten
- Walnuts, or walnut pieces

* mix flour, walnuts, sugar, and salt in a bowl
* add slightly cooled off margarine
* stir mixture until it turns into a smooth dough
* take the dough and roll it into one-two rolls approximate 6cm in diameter and wrap in ceran wrap
* cool for about one hour
* Preheat oven at 400F
* Take dough out of the fridge, cut slices approximately 3-4 mm off the roll.  Put the cut cookies on
   a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put egg on top of each cookie, and finish with an individual nut, or nut
   pieces on each cookie
* Bake for app. 10 minutes

Ausstecherle - Sugar Cookies

- 375 gr. flour
- 100 gr. vegan margarine cut into slices
- 150 gr. sugar - or a little more if you like your cookies very sweet
- 2 eggs
- 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
- vanilla sugar - or liquid vanilla
- Frosting -> app. 125 gr. powdered sugar and stir app. 3 tablespoons lemon juice, or other juice/liquid to
                     your taste.  The frosting can also be colored if desired

* Mix all of the ingredients into a dough
* Roll the dough up in ceran wrap and cool for about an hour
* Spread a little flour on your working area, roll out the first half of the dough with your rolling pin
* cut out individual shapes and place cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
* preheat oven to 350F and bake for about 10 minutes
* when cookies are cooled - spread frosting on the cookies, and - if desired this is the girls second favorite
   part - decorate them with colored sugar, sprinkles, etc.

Nikolaus

The girls have been attending the Sophie Scholl Samstagsschule since we have gotten back from Germany in late October.  It is a German immersion school and taught on Saturday's.  A couple weeks back, I posted pictures from the Laternen making day for St. Martin's.  Today, the children learned poems, and prepared for their special visitor Nikolaus.  In tradition of the celebration for St. Nikolaus Day (which is actually December 5th) each child took off a shoe and left it in the hallway.

And here look what happened....

a present in each shoe - one for each person from Nikolaus.

Nikolaus first visited the children.  The children recited poems in German for him, and St. Nikolaus also recited a German poem for the children "Tief vom Walde da komm' ich her..." Take a look

Nikolaus meets the children...

there he is..

Once Nikolaus left and went back into the Wald it was time for the children to take a look to see wether Nikolaus left them any presents.  And see how happy our girlies are...

Two very happy girlies.  And yes, their treats were Galactosemia "safe" - no chocolate but Gummibears, little oranges, nuts, and a pencil each.  Both were thrilled.  Alena did ask me later so "Mama, how did Nikolaus know that we cannot eat any Kuhmilch?" Hmmmm, I wonder how he knew ;)

As all of us went out to the suburbs today,  we decided to have lunch at McMennamins Cornelius Roadhouse.  It is basically just up the road from the school.  The girls shared a cheese less pepperoni pizza, and a basket of tater tots with plenty of honey mustard dressing.  

Oh, and if you are looking for the daily dinner picture - there will be none because the girlies ate their leftover pizza for dinner. Neither of the parental units needed any additional food today.  An off regular schedule day - but hey, it is the weekend....

Pasta Dinner...

...fresh pasta and home made sauce, no short- cut on the sauce today :) - No salad today - again! - and the girls are their pasta as usual which is plain with Olive Oil.

Mia Rose stayed home from school today. Out of nowhere she got sick last night so she still was not back to her regular self, and only ate a couple of pieces. I sure hope that she will be back to her usual self by morning....

Thursday Night Dinner is...

...warming, delicious, satisfying soup. I call this the "eat your veggies soup" and make it with dried 12(?) beans - soaked the Night before - seasonal vegetables, a can of go tomatoes and vegetable or chicken broth. Today I also added barley. The veggies today were leaks, carrots, garlic, potato, and a bunch of lacinato kale. I also had some bulk, italian sausage left. I rolled the sausage into small meatballs, fried them until browned, and added them to the soup.

A dinner success - both girls love "Wurst" in any form, Alena loves all beans, and Mia Rose loves all veggies...