Growing Green Onions

Last spring I planted store-bought green onions in these self-watering buckets I have in my backyard.(I'll post about those soon when I have pictures of the process.) I quit tending my garden last July when I could no longer get off the couch due to my complicated pregnancy (that was being 1 month pregnant then).

In March, when I came out of the house from my hibernation, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise--the onions had wintered over! Now I know why they're called Spring Onions. Not only had they survived the winter, but they were thriving!

Here's what they looked like 2 weeks ago, still without any care from my hand.

That stalk is as thick as my thumb!

Here's what the bucket system looks like:

Green onions are like grass--they keep growing and you can just cut the greens to have perpetual use out of them. I haven't been using them fast enough and now they're so heavy with the pods at the top that they're falling over! I'm excited to see what the pods do. Last year I also planted radishes, and then when my garden got plowed over at summer's end, the seeds spread through the space. Now my whole garden is full of wild radishes! I still haven't done a thing! All those white blossoms are the radish plants.

What are your favorite things to grow? Have you tried anything experimental?

A Proper Sunday Roast

We have a missionary, Sister Atkins, here from England. She's mentioned a couple times how desperately she misses her Sunday Roast and Yorkshire pudding. So when I got the chance to have the girls, Sister Atkins and Sister Draney, over here for their Mother's Day Skype calls and then dinner, I knew I'd have to cook Sister Atkins her traditional Sunday meal.

We had Beef Roast in the crockpot, roast potatoes in the crockpot, peas and carrots, and Yorkshire pudding.

The Yorkshire puddings were the all-around kid favorite!

So then, recipes:

Slow Cooker English Roast, modified from So Wonderful, So Marvelous

• 2-3 pound beef roast 
• 1 large white onion
• 2 carrots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1.5 - 2 Tablespoons of Spices (I used salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning)
• 1 1/3 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic or cider vinegar

Layer the onion, carrots and garlic in the bottom of the crockpot. Put the beef on top and pour the broth, oil and vinegar over it. Then shake the seasonings on top of the meat. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. The meat was so juicy and tender, we didn't need knives!

Slow Cooker Roast Potatoes

• 7-8 red potatoes
• salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, parsley to taste
• olive oil to coat

This is how my cooking looks. Sorry for the vagueness of it. But that's what I did. I don't peel my potatoes, just chop them to a size that I don't have to cut them on the kids' plates. Then I dumped them in the crockpot, coated them in olive oil, and went to town with my seasonings. Cook on high until tender and crisp, 3-4 hours.

Peas and Carrots

I just cooked a frozen bag of peas and carrots on the stove and then seasoned with Lawry's Seasoned Salt.

Yorkshire Pudding, from 12 Tomatoes

• 3 large eggs

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 3/4 teaspoon table salt

• 3 tablespoons beef fat (drippings from the roast)

Whisk eggs and milk together, then add salt and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 1-3 hours. 

Heat the oven to 450. Collect the drippings from the roast. Whisk 1 tablespoon of fat into the pudding batter. Use the rest of the fat to spoon 1/2 teaspoon into each muffin cup. When the oven is heated, place the pan into the oven for three minutes to heat the fat. Then fill each cup with batter 2/3 full. Place muffin pan in the oven for 20 minutes. (12 Tomatoes says to then turn the heat down and cook another 10 minutes. I didn't do that because Sister Atkins said her family doesn't do that. It also says to pierce the puddings with a skewer to prevent collapse, but they all collapsed anyway.) 

The whole dinner was delicious, and Sister Atkins was in heaven having some English food once again. I should have taken a picture for her and her family. Next time we'll have to try Toad in the Hole. (She doesn't like fish, otherwise we'd go for Fish and Chips.)

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

People ask me for my buttercream recipe all the time. I've used this recipe for 16 years since I went to a Wednesday night church-sponsored cake decorating activity a week before I turned 12. It's really simple and easy to make...and somewhat addicting. Hide the graham crackers!

Wilton's Buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter/margarine, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp vanilla

2-4 T milk

4 cups powdered sugar

Whip butter with shortening.

Add vanilla and 2 T milk.

Mix in 2 cups powdered sugar til smooth.

Mix in another 2 cups powdered sugar along with 1-2 T milk, til smooth.

Should look like this:

My KitchenAid can hold a double batch at a time.

Animal Game

We started a fun game to burn off some energy on inside days. All of my (mobile) kids love to play. It's an easy thing for me to do when I'm breastfeeding my youngest, or cleaning up the table after breakfast. It's especially great on days when their energy levels are overwhelming and I'm getting overstimulated.

The game is simple: I call out an animal, and the kids cross from one side of the living room to the other and back, acting like that animal. Favorites include horse (Dancy loves to gallop and say, "Giddyup!"), fairies (Tinkerbell is all the rage in this house), and roly poly. I like to rotate between hopping, crawling, running and flying animals. Or on days that they seem extra energetic, I go through a lot of running animals.

They love the game and it's a great way to get them exercise so they'll actually nap!