Orange Ginger Seitan

Tonight we had ginger-and-orange-glazed seitan on quinoa; spring greens with blueberries and apples; and roasted sweet potato puréed with a little agave and my favorite spice for baking or for seasoning winter squash or pumpkin:

It's from Penzeys, and the star anise is what makes it brilliant.

I made the seitan from scratch, from the Real Food Daily Cookbook Chicken-Style Seitan recipe.

I like this recipe because it uses cannellini beans and garbanzo bean flour in addition to the wheat gluten, so it seems less like a hit of pure gluten. None of us has a problem with gluten, so I think seitan is a great high-protein occasional meat alternative, especially when I make it at home. Most of the supermarket meat alternatives don't seem like much of an option, with their highly processed soy, and sodium, and preservative chemicals.

I browned it in a cast-iron skillet and then made a quick glaze with freshly squeezed orange juice, grated ginger and tamari. I served it with stir-fried carrots, cauliflower, scallions and rainbow chard stems over quinoa. The organic rainbow chard was so beautiful at the market today, the stems were all shades of lavender/violet pink and bright golds and red and deep purples. It's always such a scramble right at the end to get it on the table while everything is hot. Especially since R asks for miso soup with every dinner now. I'm glad she likes it, but there is another extra step. I cut the scallions on the fly. They taught us in cooking school to cut our scallions so elegantly, into slender little O's. I didn't realize how shameful these are until I took a close-up picture. But it's just family dinner on a Wednesday, and it was good.

Back to Bentos!

It has been quite awhile since I took lunch photos in the morning. For various reasons--keeping things cold, lunch box shape--they are often not really bentos any more. They're not in one box. But I think the principle is the same.

Bean Soup

I am trying to be better about making whole-food meals from scratch, and eating less meat, more whole grains, and more fruits and vegetables. More colors on the plate, for variety and nutrition. Taking pictures in the wintertime is another story, when it's pitch dark by the time dinner is on the table.

Tonight was 16-bean soup that simmered all day in the slow cooker; peach and Rainier cherry cobbler from the peaches and cherries I canned over the summer; kale with caramelized onions; steamed carrots and oranges. I put out some preserves I canned in June, strawberry preserves with black pepper and mint. The black pepper just gives it a hint of heat, more like a warmth at the end of a bite, and the mint is un-identifiable, something fresh and grassy under the straight-ahead sweetness of strawberries.

The preserves were so good with this Oat Soda Bread from 101cookbooks.com. You make the oat flour by whizzing rolled oats in the food processor. I substituted white whole wheat flour for the all purpose flour. What a great recipe! It's a whole grain quickbread, no yeast or rising, a way to have warm homemade bread on the table for dinner without planning ahead very much.

Cooking beans at high altitude can take forever, but this soup went into the slow cooker at 9 a.m. and the beans were soft by dinner at 6.

I have big plans too, to get back to taking pictures of the bento lunches. Over the weekend, I made and froze brown rice onigiri, baked egg rolls, some healthy muffins and cookies, and two batches of homemade seitan. I still take a lot of time with R's lunches, but it seems like we're busier this year, and taking photos before we leave for school at 7:20 has eluded me since September.

Cemetery Walk

After we took the Christmas card photos on Saturday, we stopped to get R's neighbor friend and took Charlie for a walk to the cemetery near our house.

E is getting so brave with Charlie, she loves to walk him on his leash.

They are such good friends. I love to watch how they hang on each other's words and die laughing at each other's stories. A best friend is so important when you're 7 and 8.


The late afternoon light in the winter in Colorado is golden and lovely.

A lot of bobby pins went into her Christmas picture hair!

We walk in the cemetery a lot with Charlie. The girls are so interested in the headstones, and they always stop to say a Hail Mary and an Our Father. They make up stories about the lives of the people who are buried there.

They wanted to climb in Jesus' lap like he was Santa. I think that's more sweet than sacreligious. I hope they feel that way about Him.

Saying goodbye and comparing treasures they found on their walk. A long pheasant feather, and some pretty rocks.

Clothespin Ornaments

We had a party last weekend with our little neighbor friends, to make clothespin Christmas ornaments.

A big mess and a lot of fun.


R's best friend is her little neighbor E. E used to be afraid of dogs, until she met Charlie. Now she goes on walks with us, and is brave and holds his leash.

When they got tired of making things, they roasted marshmallows.


We had so much fun with the ornaments that we played hooky from school on Thursday and made a bunch more. That was such a fun day. We were burnt out from all the school and church activities. We needed a day to sleep in and just slow down and spend time together listening to Christmas carols and glueing and cutting.

These are my ornaments.

R was much more prolific. These are hers.

Look at the detail on the little faces! Pretty good motor control for a seven year old. Once she figured out how to use a Sharpie instead of a paintbrush.

Christmas Card Photo Rejects

Harder than it looks, getting a seven year old and a border collie puppy to take a photo where they are both sitting still with appropriate facial expressions.











Is that enough pictures?

Can we be done now?

Seriously. I want to go play.

Everyone is over it.

I am going to give you this look until you release me.

Daddy comes to the rescue, making funny faces behind me.





A helping hand from Daddy.







I do love living in this crazy house, despite the noise and the toys and the dog hair.

High School Friends and a Luminaria Walk

Last night my high school friend Jennifer had a party for two other high school friends who live in or near Denver, and our high school friend Andrea, who was visiting from Albuquerque. Andrea has been my best friend since we were in kindergarten together at Our Lady of the Annunciation in Albuquerque. Jennifer made posole and tamales, and we went for a luminaria walk through her wonderful old Washington Park neighborhood. The kids had a ball running through the park and around the lake in the dark, and the houses at night all lit up for Christmas were so festive.

The kids range in age from ten to four.

Catching up with old friends.



Who knew back in high school that all these beautiful kids were in our future?






And last weekend we had a birthday party for my high school friend Tom at our house. No blessing in the world like old friends. We are all so lucky to live near each other and have our kids play together.