Cinnamon Blend

When my son was in kindergarten, he came home with a request to send in his favorite recipe that I make to be included in a class cookbook. When I asked him what recipe was his favorite, he replied, "Applesauce!" When I told him that it was just (unsweetened) applesauce in a jar from the store, he said, "Yeah, but you put cinnamon on it." (We picked another favorite for the book.)

When he was in first grade, he had to make an "All About Me" poster which included his favorite food. He added a construction paper bowl of applesauce and used glue stick and cinnamon like glitter to scent the creation.

Applesauce is still a favorite dinner side dish topped with a special cinnamon blend that also works well in recipes calling for pumpkin or apple pie spice. It's great stirred in oatmeal, mixed with sugar for cinnamon toast, or just about anywhere you'd use plain cinnamon. I printed the recipe with a label maker and put it on my spice jar to make things easy when I want to refill it.

Cinnamon Blend
1/4 cup cinnamon
1 Tablespoon allspice
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
Combine all ingredients and store in an airtight container.

Legolympic Snowboard Halfpipe Arena

As I mentioned in a previous post, here, our family has been really excited about the winter Olympics. And, well, Legos are kind of a way of life around our house. So, my son constructed a tribute to snowboard halfpipe gold and bronze medalists Shaun White and Scott Lago. Now we have a new addition to our Legolympic display with this halfpipe arena complete with a Lego Lago and a helmetless champion. Since Lego helmets don't quite fit on minifigures with hair, we'll just have to hope Shaun is extra careful with his Double McTwist 1260s.

Beer Bread Mix

Beer Bread is a nice side on soup nights. Although it is an easy quick bread, you can make the mix ahead of time stored in a ziploc bag in the pantry short-term or freezer for even easier preparation later. I'd love to know how this recipe compares to the popular Bountiful Beer Bread Mix from Tastefully Simple, but I'm not willing to spend $5.49 to find out.

Beer Bread Mix
3 cups self-rising flour (or half all-purpose and half whole wheat)*
1/3-½ cup sugar
* If not using self-rising flour, add 4 ½ teaspoons baking powder and 1 ½ teaspoons salt.
Beer Bread
Beer Bread Mix
12oz beer
2-3 Tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix all ingredients except melted butter together, stirring just until blended. (You may have to use your hands to get the dough mixed thoroughly.) Dough will be sticky. Pour into greased bread loaf pan. Spread melted butter over the top of the bread before baking (or during the last 10 minutes of baking). Bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Lego Family Time Legolympics

There have been a lot of promotions from game companies encouraging family game nights, but I wanted to share another idea for an evening of family fun with Legos. Lego has a very basic set called Builders of Tomorrow (6177), and they have been promoting it by featuring monthly building instructions on their site here. They've also teamed up with Family Fun Magazine to offer even more instructions each month here. They are PDF files that you can print and/or save in a file on your computer.

We've got quite a large stash of Lego sets, and we could probably create many of the mothly designs out of what we already have, but I really liked the idea of having one special set that was only for Lego Family Nights. The kids get excited when I pull out the "Family Lego Box". The Builders of Tomorrow set retails around $30.00.


Our family has been eagerly anticipating the start of the 2010 winter Olympic games. We've been using some of the monthly building instructions and the Builders of Tomorrow set to create a fun little Olympic display. (The only things pictured that were not made from the monthly building instructions and the set were the medal podium with minifigures, the torch-bearing minifigure added to the 2010, and the US flag which is actually a Mega Blocks set we found at the dollar store a few years ago.)

Valentine Heart-Shaped Pizza and Chocolate Fondue

Valentine's Day is traditionally a family affair at our house. Nothing terribly fancy, just our standard homemade pizza shaped into a heart, some strawberries and other yummies dipped in chocolate fondue, and fruit and veggie smoothies. Maybe a game or puzzle after everything is cleaned up and the Peanuts Classic, Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown.

Thin Pizza Crust in the Bread Machine
3 teaspoons yeast
¾ - 1 cup tepid water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 ½ cups flour
Dissolve yeast in water. Add sugar, salt, and olive oil. Pour into bread machine pan. Add flour. Set bread machine on dough setting. Check dough after 5 minutes or so to see if any extra water or flour needs to be added. Yield: 2 pizza crusts.
Top and bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden brown.

Easy Chocolate Fondue2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces evaporated milk
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt chocolate and combine addtional ingredients according to fondue pot directions. Dip cubed pound cake, fruit, pretzels, cookies, marshmallows into chocolate and enjoy.

Spaghetti Sauce

Here's my very basic spaghetti sauce recipe. I buy a big can of tomato puree at Costco for $2.79 and can make about 4 quart-size jars of sauce. I also use this sauce when we make homemade pizzas.




Spaghetti Sauce
106-ounce can tomato puree
2 teaspoons onion salt
2 teaspoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon parsley
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon white or black pepper
2 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
Combine and simmer in the crockpot on low for a few hours. Pour into containers (I use wide-mouth Mason jars.) and freeze.

To pack more veggies into the sauce, I have used the Vita-Mix to puree fresh spinach with a cup or two of sauce, and add it to the rest of the batch.
This recipe has not been safety tested for canning.