Bona Vita

Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

Pasta:

1 lb. of pasta ( elbow or penne)

1 tsp. olive oil

 

Sauce:

1/2 cup butter ( one cube)

1/2 cup flour

1 onion - chopped

3 cups milk

1 cup heavy whipping cream

4 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp. paprika

season with pepper and salt to taste

 

Topping:

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

2 tblsp. butter - melted

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Boil water in a 3-5 quart pan. Add oil to the water. Add pasta to boiling water and boil for about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and set aside.

Saute the chopped onion in the butter in a 4 - 5 quart pan.

When the onion is soft, add the flour slowly. Use a whisk to incorporate the flour. Your goal is a smooth sauce. Slowly add 1 cup of the milk, whisk continually.

Now, add the remaining milk and cream. Once you have a creamy sauce, add the seasoning.

Add the grated cheese. Stir in the cheese, but it does not all have to melt.

Combine the cheesy mixture and the pasta in a large bowl.

Once the pasta is nicely combined with the cheese mixture, pour it into a buttered 9"x 13" casserole.

Combine the breadcrumbs and the melted butter. Spread this mixture over the top of the macaroni and cheese.

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

"Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese." - G.K. Chesterton

 

 

Reach For The Stars: Understanding Your Child's Potential

You are your children's greatest advocate, cheerleader, fan, and their source of boundless love. As a parent you are also responsible for motivating your children to reach their greatest potential.  This involves trying to understand what their potential might be even when they struggle with learning disabilities, handicaps, or developmental delays. It's a long process full of struggles and victories. It will bring tremendous joy as you watch your children grow, mature, meet goals,  and gain confidence as they push themselves to new heights.

Here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Their strides may be small, but rejoice. Little steps lead to great victories. It is motivating to rejoice in small successes.

• Don't compare your child with other children, not even to a sibling. It will be frustrating for you and for your son or daughter. Work with them from the level where they are performing and reach for goals with them from that point.

• Don't get comfortable. If your child is easily accomplishing an academic task such as: a type of math problem, a math process, a reading level, a writing exercise, etc. move them on to a new challenge. It's beautiful to see your child excel at something, but the point is to move them onward and upward.

• Have fun. Games and rewards can work wonders to motivate children in academic settings.

• Celebrate your children's victories. Reward them with treats and stickers when they are younger. You will have to get a little more creative as they mature.

Reach for the stars with your children. The atmosphere holds stars at many different levels for children of varying abilities. The point is not that they will all reach the same stars, but that we help them find their own stars.

 

 

15 Tips for a Happier, More Organized Year

Hello, readers of Bona Vita! For those of you who don't know me, I'm Kathy's oldest daughter, Emily, and the author of another blog The Orange Slate.

I write a lot about simplicity and organization, two things that affect everyone, from the busy working young professional to the equally busy stay-at-home-mom. 

The coming of the New Year gives us all a chance to re-evaluate our time management, to set new goals, and to tackle our beautifying, organizing, and simplifying projects with renewed energy. 

I have been talking a lot about organizing on my own blog and when Mom asked me if I had some tips to share with her readers, I jumped at the chance! I truly think people who live simpler, more organized lives are happier and more successful and I love encouraging others towards happier, more organized lives.

So for this first real back-at-the-grind day of 2014, here are 10 tips to help you begin a more organized year.

1. Use a physical planner or calendar. Digital calendars are great supplements and provide a wonderful way to communicate among family members, but to do the real work of planning, you need physical paper. I promise you. (I'm currently giving away a printable planner over at The Orange Slate, so head over there if you still need the perfect planner!)

2. Spend 20 minutes every Saturday or Sunday planning the coming week. Yes, things will happen that are entirely out of your control or ability to predict. Having some kind of framework and being mentally prepared for the week ahead will still help you be more effective and will help you get back on track more quickly when the plan falls apart.

3. Have a few clear goals for yourself each week. I'm not talking about grocery lists, honey-dos, or the scheduled events. If your goal is to finish reading Jane Eyre, then it has to find a place into your weekly calendar or it will never happen. No matter how busy you are, commit to a few, small, unscheduled personal goals each week and note them down in your weekly plan. The feeling of accomplishment will boost your mood when the soccer schedule comes crashing down.

4. Give your children a few clear goals for each week (or day). My mom is a huge believer in clear goals and has talked about her book lists at length on this blog. Children (just like adults) are enormously motivated by clear goals and rewards. So help your children set some goals for themselves early in the week (100 pages a day by Friday, 3 math lessons in before the weekly Co-op, etc). You and they will be satisfied and less overwhelmed by the week knowing what is expected by the coming weekend.

5.Plan your meals. This is on my 2014 bucket list. Confession: I've never done this. Mark and I winged our way through the married part of 2013 cooking a lot and eating well. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure an unnecessary amount of food went to waste and there were definitely a couple of those "Um, I didn't thaw anything. Let's go out to dinner!" moments. I think we could have more effectively managed my time and our food budget with just a little bit of planning. So this year, I'm going to put a few minutes each week into planning our meals so that I know exactly what to buy when I'm at the store.

6. Stop being a perfectionist. This is a big one. And it's important. Seriously, just give it up. You're stressing yourself (and probably everyone in your family) out by being a perfectionist. Your house does not have to be perfect before you let anyone in the front door. Your meal does not have to look like it fell out of Bon Appetit. The extra rant you went on right before the Smiths came over did not make the house cleaner and probably made your children a lot less happy. I promise you that no one cares as much as you do. Practice letting one really really important thing not be perfect every week until this becomes a habit.

7. Set semester, monthly, and weekly goals. Spend a couple of hours sometime this week or next laying out a framework for yourself and each child for the spring semester. Having a map will help remind you of the big picture. When the math lessons slip behind, when someone gets sick, or when life and school just become overwhelming, having a larger framework will help everyone stay on track. 

8. Create a structure that everyone can depend on. Come up with a loose family framework ("We all eat together on Wednesday nights, no matter what;" "Thursdays are frozen pizza days; etc.") and then let your children and husband depend on that structure. Everyone will be better planners if everyone knows what the expectations are.

For instance, last fall, Mark and I each had separate church commitments Tuesday and Thursday. The combination of that and our work schedules meant that we didn't see each other until 9:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and only briefly passed each other early in the evening on Thursdays. So on Thursdays, I made something that was easy for both of us to grab whenever we were hungry (pasta salad or some variation thereof) and didn't cook at all on Tuesdays. I was relieved from the pressure of preparing and timing a meal that neither one of us had time to eat and we both felt free to plan our evenings separately, knowing that we'd spend time together in the middle of the week.

Bonus: your kids will be able to be more independent. If the expectations and structure for the week are constantly changing, everyone will be less effective and will eventually get caught up in a cycle of constantly double-checking to make sure everyone is on the same page. Help your children become organized, effective adults by giving them a structure and then giving them some independence. 

9. Throw lots of stuff away. Spend 30 minutes every week during January getting rid of stuff. If no one has worn it, played with it, or used it in a year, you don't need to keep it. Put it in a trashbag and throw it out. Better yet, take it to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. A home that is free of clutter is a less frantic, more organized home. Stop cleaning and moving all of that stuff that no one is using and just get rid of it.

10. Relax. This is not a race. Leave some unstructured time in your day and week. Spend time cuddling with your kids on the couch. Let them read books they want to read. They do not need to know three languages before 9th grade. They do need to know that their mom loves them, that mistakes are ok, that the entire world does not come crashing down because they forgot to do an assignment.

Thanks for letting me spend some time over here! Hopefully these tips will help all of you start 2014 effectively and happily. 

~Emily from The Orange Slate

Beef Stew with Cabernet

 

 

It's ugly cold here. That is the only way I can describe it. The sky is grey. The ground is icky brown. The leaves are gone. The temperature is uncomfortable and yet not cold enough for a beautiful snow cover. It's ugly cold. That's the rule in November in Indiana.

Then there is the exception. The temperature drops. The sky is decorated with an amazing blue punctuated by white. Snow appears and actually begins to accumulate.

Now, I want winter to come quickly, a real winter, a cold winter, a beautiful winter.

Here's a warm hearty stew to celebrate the coming of winter.

 

 

Beef Stew With Cabernet

4 - 5 pounds stew meat, cut into 1-2 inch pieces

4 tablespoons flour

4 cups beef stock

1 cup cabernet sauvignon

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

10 - 12 small yukon gold potatoes, cut into small pieces

2 cups baby carrots

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

pepper as you like

 

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.
• Saute the garlic in the olive oil.
• Dredge 1/4 of the meat in flour. I have dredged all of the meat in the past. But, Emily from The Orange Slate convinced me to try browning meat without dredging after she read a The Supper of the Lamb that discussed "to dredge or not to dredge."

 

 

• Brown the meat in the olive oil in workable batches.
• Add the browned meat to a dutch oven or similar large pot with a tight fitting lid.
• Add the stock, wine, Worcestershire sauce, herbs, potatoes, carrots and onions to the dutch oven.

 

 

• Add additional water to just cover all of the ingredients.
• Season with pepper to taste.
• Bring to a boil.
• Lower the heat to medium/low and cook on the stove for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender and the vegetables are soft.
• Serve with brown gravy

 

 

 

 

November Up North And Hotteok

 

It's November up here in Pure Michigan. Here's a sample of some of our Up North activities.

 

 

Cadillac's economy seems to be healthier. We enjoyed a great lunch at a new brewery in town, the Clam Lake Beer Company. I loved the new interior design. It even sported really cool bathrooms. The food was terrific. Maybe next time I'll get to report on the beer.

 

 

Since we won't be back up here until a few days before Christmas I've been forced to decorate for Christmas early this year. I'm not very motivated. I don't think I've ever decorated before Thanksgiving in the past. I have managed to work on two trees in the main living areas. The kids did a fabulous job on a tree in the basement. They were more into it than I was. Hopefully, I can play a little Mannheim Steamroller and finish decorating before we leave.

 

The highlight so far was when Sarah, my 16 year old, made hotteok (sweet Korean pancakes). She worked with a recipe from Maangchi.

She remained true to the recipe with the exception of substituting peanuts for walnuts.

 

 

Of course, we are waiting for November 15 when the air will be filled with sound of eager deer hunters sporting Blaze Orange.

 

Spinach Omelet With Artichoke Hearts, Onions, And Feta Cheese

One of my favorite Traverse City restaurants was Mabel's. This family owned and operated cafe served terrific simple fare at very reasonable prices. Mabel's was warm and comfortable, a lovely escape from the TC traffic and parking issues. I would usually visit early in the morning. The booths were filled with locals, vacationing families, and folks just passing through the area.

Mabel's served an unforgettable omelet. It forever changed the way I make an omelet at home. They were almost as thin as crepes, yet fluffy and filled with surprises.

Spinach Omelet With Artichoke Hearts, Onions, and Feta Cheese

6 eggs

a dash of heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup spinach, chiffonade (i.e. cut in ribbon like strips)

1 medium onion, diced

1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

feta cheese

butter

• Heat about 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saute pan.
• Add the onion, garlic, and artichoke hearts to the pan. Saute until the onion is soft.
  
• Add the spinach and saute until it is wilted.
• Heat a large griddle and melt about 1 tablespoon of butter, spreading it evenly over the griddle. The griddle should not be too hot.
• Gently hand whip the eggs, incorporating the cream as you whip.
• Add the salt and pepper to the eggs.
• Pour the eggs onto the medium hot griddle and carefully spread the egg and cream mixture over the entire surface of the griddle. As you spread the eggs you may create holes. Just gently push the egg mixture from the edge into the holes.

• The idea is to spread the egg mixture thinly but completely over the griddle.
• Cook the egg mixture until it is almost done. This is an individual decision as everyone likes their eggs cooked differently. My family likes their omelets very well done.
  
• Sprinkle the cheese and the sauteed mixture down the center of the eggs, lengthwise.
  

• Fold the omelet in from each long side overlapping the sauteed mixture
• Cut the omelet into 3 separate pieces.
• Place each omelet on a plate.
• Garnish with a few ribbons of spinach, fresh tomatoes, and another sprinkle of feta cheese.

Lessons I'll Share With You After Years of Homeschooling - #9

#9 - Encourage your children every day.

The fact is as we teach our children at home we might miss the opportunity to be encouraging every day. Let's face it, we spend hours teaching, grading, re-teaching, admonishing, prodding, and lecturing in our attempts to move our kids forward academically. Most of us have been worried sick at one time or another that we are failing in our attempt to educate our kids at home. So, what do we do, we teach, we nudge, we lecture, we fret, and we admonish over and over again.

In reality, your kids are progressing, maybe not at quite the speed you would like, but they are moving forward each day. Do most kids desire to run, play, and daydream instead of pushing through with their schoolwork? Of course. Instead, our children (yours and mine) sit as best as they can working on their math problems, listening to our admonitions, reading their textbooks, listening to our lectures, practicing their instrument, and exercising their minds.

So, encourage your kids. Let them know how proud you are of their hard work. Show them the progress they have made in a particular subject. Hug them. Every single day. You will be amazed at what these little acts of encouragement will do for the atmosphere of your home and for the academic progress of your children.

Creamy Potato Soup

Falling back in time is such a delicious sounding prospect. You actually gain an entire hour in your day. I dream up plans for that extra hour for about a week ahead. In reality, that hour seems to just get absorbed into the day, although, I did have time to try out a few new recipes this weekend.

The potato soup I made yesterday was the perfect addition to a crisp, cold, clear November day. It was particularly creamy with just enough pepper. The grated sharp cheddar cheese added to the hearty nature of this soup.

 My potato soup recipe was inspired by Melissa over at Pretty Yummy Foods. She always has a wonderful recipe or fun story to share. Melissa was recently crowned Ms. Auburn. I don't know about you but I'm pretty impressed that a busy mom has the discipline to not only prepare for but win such a pageant. Kudos to you, Melissa.

Creamy Potato Soup

8-10 Yukon Gold Potatoes (cut into bite size pieces)

1 onion, diced

3 medium carrots, cut into thin disks

3 stalks of celery, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon pepper

1 teaspoon thyme

7 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

1 cup white wine

olive oil

• Saute the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic in about 5 tablespoons of olive oil.
• Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and incorporate it into the oil as if you were making a roux.

 

• Pour the broth, milk, and wine into the pot.
• Add the potatoes.
  

• Sprinkle the pepper and thyme over the soup and stir.

• Cover and bring to a boil.
• Stir, again. Let the soup simmer for at least one hour.
• Serve with grated sharp cheddar cheese.

DIY Easy Instructions For A Cape

Capes always make terrific costumes. Vary the color and the embellishments and you quickly become a princess, a member of the Grecian nobility, a super hero, or even a Hobbit.

I have a quick method for making a cape. It can be modified to fit just about any size, shape, or occasion.

The Cape   

45 inch wide fabric (measure from the top of your head to the bottom length you desire and double this measurement to determine yardage you need.)

Fabric for tie ( 24" -36" long by 3" wide)

Thread

Embellishments

• Fold the fabric in half so that the fold is at the crown of your head with the right sides together. The fabric should now be your desired length plus an inch for hemming.

• Match the salvaged edges along one side. Now pin these together.
  
• Sew down the entire length of the pinned side, removing the pins as you sew.

• Turn it right side out.
  
• The top sewed edge of the fabric where it meets the folded edge will be the back peak of the hood on the cape.

• Try on the cape and fold back the front edge about 3/4 of the way towards the peak of the hood.
• Now fold back the front edge 1/2 towards the edge of the first fold.

• Try on the cape again and decide if you need one more fold in the hood. Adjust accordingly.
• Pin the folds in place.
• Now stitch a straight line down the center of the crown sewing the folds permanently in place.
• Cut the fabric for the tie.
• Fold the tie fabric in 1/2" on both ends.

• Fold the tie fabric towards the middle along both lengthwise sides.

• Now fold the piece in half. You should not have any raw edges at this point.
• Sew down the length of the tie.

• Again try on the cape. Using the tie, adjust the hood to achieve your desired look.

• Sew the tie on the back seam of the cape where it will best work for you.
• Once again, try on the cape. Adjust your hood with the tie.
• Hem the bottom edge.
  

• Embellish the cape as you like.
  

 

You Can Enjoy Artichokes All Year

I was raised in Southern California.  Sunset Magazine graced our coffee table and my parents grew artichokes in the yard. Both left their impressions on me. I will always find minimalistic California architecture and mid century furniture remarkable.  Desertscapes and succulent gardening fascinate me. The artichoke will forever be my favorite thistle. I will always wonder who first figured out how to enjoy them.

Today California continues to produce almost all of the United States' crop of artichokes. The harvest peaks in the spring. But, thanks to Costco, we can enjoy an artichoke any time of year. Don't you love Costco? I certainly do.

It's really very simple to cook artichokes. Martha Stewart has a wonderful tutorial if you need visual instructions.

Simply Artichokes

4 artichokes

dutch oven or similar size pot with 1 1/2 inches of lightly salted water

melted butter for dipping

• Bring the water in the pot to boiling. You can fit it with a steamer if you have one.
• Rinse the artichokes thoroughly. You can let them soak in lemon water.
  
• Trim the stems of the artichokes even with the bottom of the artichoke.
• Cut off the top of the artichoke.
  
• Trim the leaves of the artichokes. You are removing the thorns and making each artichoke look  more appealing.
• Gently loosen and spread out the leaves.
• Place the artichokes with the stems facing up in the pot of boiling salted water.
• Cover the pot and let the artichokes steam for about 40 minutes. Test to see if they are tender by gently pulling off a leaf. It should come off easily.

You can flavor the water with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice if you like.

Serve with the melted butter.