A Very Fragrant Butternut Squash and Zucchini Chili

I have a very pretty little row of butternut squash in my kitchen that keeps getting longer. I thought I had a bumper crop of chard but my squash shocked me even more. Last night, I held a zucchini in one hand and a squash in the other and was trying to decide what to do with them. With a few simple ingredients and about 10 minutes of chopping and peeling I had a very delicious smelling chili simmering.

With the nights starting to get a little cooler and a large crop of squash and zucchini, I know this chili will be making several more appearances at our supper table.

Fragrant Butternut Squash and Zucchini Chili

(adapted from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Haven)

1T Olive oil

1.5C Chopped onion

1 t Salt

1 t cumin

1/4t cinnamon

4-5 cloves garlic, crushed

1T Chili powder

1C Vegetable stock

1 Butternut squash, peeled and chopped 1 inch dice or so

1-2 Zucchini, chopped 1 inch dice or so

-2 limes, juiced

1 28oz can beans (I used red kidney but I imagine any would be delicious)

1.Heat oil in a dutch oven or pot. Add onion, salt, cumin, cinnamon and chili powder. Cook over low heat until onions are soft. About 10 minutes. Stirring frequently.

2. Stir in garlic and cook another 5 mins.

3. Add stock and squash. Cook 15 mins covered at med low heat.

4. Add zucchini, lime juice, and beans. Cook for 5-10 more mins.

5. Taste and season to your liking with more salt and pepper.

*top with pumpkin seeds, marinated tofu, minced cilantro or whatever else sounds good.

Spell-T Animal Crackers

Fun...The N cutter is a face with a big Nose. Not what I would have thought of for the letter N but I think it is my favourite cutter.

This is what I did today...made about 80 animal crackers. The first batch are spelt and honey and the second are oatmeal spice. While my Gramma Hobbs was cleaning out her apartment to move she found these really cute little animal cracker cutters. We love alphabet noodles and alphabet cookies and such, so these are a welcome addition to our pantry. We also found these cutters very useful with Playdough.

Oatmeal Spice Animal Crackers
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup rolled oats or (spelt flakes)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 cup butter
2-3 teaspoons honey
1/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grind oats until fine using a blender or food processor. (I use my coffee grinder)
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the blended oats, flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until the butter lumps are smaller than peas. Stir in the buttermilk and honey to form a stiff dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart onto cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes. Spell, eat. You could even top with cheddar cheese.
   

Lucy's New Threads

Sewing is just a different kind of recipe. In fact, I often mix up the terms and say I'm using a pattern for dinner and a recipe for sewing...
For Clara's third birthday she got a dolly from her Great Gramma Dorothy and named the dolly "Lucy". Gramma Dorothy is a wonderful seamstress and has always made beautiful things including doll clothes. I had a little spare time last night and was digging through my old patterns when I found a vintage pattern for doll clothes. I used some sweet fat quarters that my Mum-in-law bought me for my birthday and now Lucy has some cool new threads.

Driveway Art

The cottage was beautiful. It was so good to be with family and friends more regularly than usual. The kids loved having Gramma and Grampa to play with. All that said, Clara needed something to do today and since there was no beach or lake we made paint.

It is so easy to make that you could easily make every colour of the rainbow in less than 5 minutes.

Milky Street Paint

1/4 C cornstarch

1/4 C Water

food colouring

containers

Mix the cornstarch and water together until smooth and add as much food colouring as you need to make the colours you are requested to make...such as peach and turquoise and lavender.