I had an ice cream date with the little babe on Friday morning after buying some kale seedlings to restock the garden. Actually it was her treat/bribe for not running pell-mell through the store to get a cup of water from the water cooler. She chose Oreo Cookie. Luckily for me, the big scoop fell off into a dish and she just wanted the cone part. I realized that it is the first ice cream cone that she has held and eaten herself - what a milestone!
Pancakes made with goat's milk kefir instead of the normal whey left over from cheese making. One day was a banana oatmeal combo, another day was grated zucchini and oatmeal pancakes with a pinch of nutmeg. Kefir is something that we've just started buying at the farmers market and I have discovered that it is great in smoothies (my favorite - about 3/4 cup of kefir, some fresh peaches, a banana, frozen strawberries picked in June, a glug of maple syrup, and a handful of almonds). I would like to start making my own kefir.
Simple little butter cookies kicked up a notch with fresh lemon balm and rainbow sprinkles. After making the chocolate cake with fresh mint leaves, I was curious about what I could bake with lemon balm. I found this recipe and altered it a bit. I blitzed the fresh lemon balm leaves and white sugar* together in a food processor to make a totally delightful lemon balm sugar. It smelled amazing! Then I simply made the cookies like normal - combine butter and sugar, then eggs, etc. The lemon flavor was faint, so next time I'll up the amount of lemon balm. I like lemon flavored baked goods, but don't like using lemons (way too many transportation miles on those yellow babies), so it is nice to know that there is a sort-of substitute. The lemon balm sugar would make an awesome topping for muffins too!
Maple lattes, iced chai lattes (homemade chai concentrate recipe coming soon), fresh maple lemonade (maybe with a splash of vodka on a hot Summer afternoon?) - we have some good drinks around here too. Oh, and I'm loving the midday lunch picnics with the little babe on the back deck. Some dates, raw milk Havarti from the farmers market (I am slightly addicted to that salty cheese), pita bread with beet hummus - it doesn't take much to make the little babe happy (sometimes). Bribe her with some chocolate goat's milk or a pumpkin whoopie pie and she'll do almost anything. Though she's not allowed to have both of those at the same time - even this sweet tooth Momma has to set some limits.
What are the good eats at your house?
*I've been doing most of my baking with maple syrup instead of white or brown sugar, but I was afraid that maple syrup would overpower the lemon balm flavor and make these cookies spread out too much.