Play Cooking

 Like medicine cabinets, spice cabinets need to be cleaned out ever so often. And by ever so often I mean every year or so, not every decade or so. Yes, medicine goes bad, but unlike medicine, which has expiration dates printed on it, most spice jars don't have expiration dates printed on them, but they do expire. Unfortunately a lot the spices that you can get in your local grocery store are past their prime when you buy them. You get what you pay for, what can I say. When you open a bottle of spices you shouldn't have to put your nose in it to smell its wonderful flavor. It should be more like in chemistry class when you would waft the smell to your nose and smell their wonderful flavor. 

Audra, why are you talking about the freshness of spices in a blog entitled play cooking, you might ask. Here's why, when you clean out your spice cabinet, getting rid of the spices that have lost their smell and need to be replaced, the old spices can be put to great use during play cooking time. This takes play cooking to a whole different level because your mud pie actually spells like food, in turn getting another sense involved in the playing process. I have used up most of my old spices, but might buy some at the dollar store for future play cooking activities. Any spice you pay a dollar for isn't going to be fresh, I'm just saying. But it would be perfect for a mud pie. 

Yesterday, while finally enjoying some spring time weather, I brought out all the makings for an epic play cooking session outside. Zane love to help cook in Mamma's kitchen, so having full rain over his own 'kitchen' is always a blast. Since we were outside I could give him real ingredients to play with. What I usually do is go through my cabinet getting the odds and ends that haven't been used, or the boxes of things that don't really have enough left to do anything with, and the old spices that need to be replaced with new ones. Yesterday's spice was Creole seasoning so it was a pretty spicey sand pie. The other ingredients included, beans, rice, and randomly bean noodles which I have no idea how they got in my cabinet, but have been there for a year, so they were fair game for play cooking time. 

First you add the beans and rice, then you add some water,

 then the sand,

 then spice up the sand mixture with a little creole seasoning, 

 stir,

say cheese for the camera,

then you have these three beautiful dishes for your outdoor meal. If you look closely you will see two little carrots, left over from last years garden, and some fresh herbs from our garden as well. The fresh herbs also added a great smell and would work great for play cooking as well. If it ever would warm up here, so my herbs would actually grow, we would use more of them in our cooking.

 Once your dishes are done it's time to plate.

 It's all in the presentation people.

 Three plates, one for Rowan of course, who was having a great time as well. 

 And then we dined. Zane was pretty depressed that we used paper plates, because he really wanted to do the dishes. Sadly, he just got to throw them away. He loved cooking time and would have stayed out there until it got dark, but Rowan was getting a bit chilly so we had to head inside. I'm sure there will be many more outdoor cooking session in our future. He would really like to pretend to grill, but I haven't figure out how to make that happen yet. Maybe I can make a pretend grill from a box some how, hmmm.... to be continued.

Spice Review

As you all know my brother and Mom opened a spice shop in Oklahoma City last September. Since the shop is in OKC I don't get to stop buy and get new spices as much as I would like, but do place phone orders quite frequently.  We are enjoying our new spices and can't wait for grilling season to begin so we can try out all our new rubs. Mom and Abbey have both given their spice reviews this week so I thought I would jump in on the fun. They are both much better cooks than I am so check out their reviews as well for great spice info.  Here is a link to mom's and here is a link to Abbey's reviews.

This is a picture of our spices on the spice rack that Zach built for us. I know the question on everyone's mind, how did I organize them? The answer is a shocking, they aren't organized at all, the short ones are all mixed in with the tall ones and everything.  It actually never crossed my mind until my mom and sister called me for organizational ideas for Abbey's spice rack, knowing that I am OCD and sure that I would have a system of some sort. What can I say and I am growing and letting things like this go. See yesterday's post of me not stressing out about things not being organized. These are mostly our rubs/blends with the other herbs and spices in the spice cabinet.

These are some of the current favorites in our house.

For Chicken my favorite is a California Citrus Rub  This is a spice that I first got while visiting Able in Colorado, years ago. He took me to the Savory Spice store in Boulder on that trip and I have been using this spice ever since. It has a great citrus flavor, but also has red pepper flakes in it which gives it a little unexpected heat that I enjoy. It is also a salt free blend if you are looking for a good mix with less salt. This is this is great in a marinade of olive oil and lemon juice, then grilled to perfection.
         Ingredients: Black pepper, lemon peel, orange peel, garlic, white sugar, crushed red pepper, and parsley. 

My most used spice, surprisingly, has been Mole Verde Spice. I use it to make chicken taquitos (recipe for which can be found here on my sister's blog), on quesadillas, and on black beans. Zane loves black beans for lunch, so to give them a little flavor I sprinkle Mole Verde, salt, pepper, and a little cumin on them, giving them just a little zing. I got the 1oz bottle initially and have refilled it a couple times already.
            Ingredients: Pumpkin seed, green chiles, sesame seeds, masa harina, salt, cilantro, epazote, garlic, onion, parsley, cumin, pepper, cloves.

We recently bought half a pig so we have a lot of unseasoned sausage. I like this much better than store bought since we can do our own seasoning. You can buy unseasoned ground pork and do this as well. It really is much tastier than what comes prepackaged. We have two different sausage blends, but our favorite is the Frying Pan Pork Sausage Spice. This makes the sausage taste like you think breakfast sausage should taste like, but to the extreme. The other blend, South Fork Italian Sausage Spice is also good, but obviously makes an Italian sausage flavor. Frying Pan Pork Sausage Spice is a must have if you are seasoning your own sausage, which I highly recommend.
          Ingredients: Salt, honey powder, pepper, sage, onion, garlic, rosemary, ginger, thyme, parsley, majoram, red pepper, and coriander.

We also happen to have half a cow in our freezer so there are lots of hamburgers being fried at our house. The Great Plains Bison Beef Rub has been a game changer for our hamburgers. Zach has always played around with different ways to season our hamburgers and I never knew how delicious a hamburger could be until we found this spice blend. It brings out all the wonderful flavors of our grass fed beef. We will never go back to generic steak/hamburger blends we had before.
         Ingredients: Sea salt, coffee, black pepper, garlic, onion, coriander, fennel, sugar, rosemary, savory, and bell pepper granules. 

Zach also smokes/grills a lot of pork and pork steaks. Here are his suggestions for grilling and smoking pork. We do have a lot of blends that we haven't gotten to try yet, since we bought most of our spices late in the grilling season last year. So far these are his favorites: Platte River Rib Rub, this was another spice that I bought while in Denver and has been a go to ever since. Zach says, "this is great for a general pork seasoning, grilling or smoking, with a less sweet flavor." His other favorite is Pearl St. Plank Rub which is his favorite for smoking, because "it has a little bit of sweetness, it carmalizes well, and has a bit of heat in the back."
          Ingredients in Platte River Rub: Spanish paprika, salt, brown sugar, black pepper, medium chilli powder, roasted garlic, toasted onion, nutmeg, and hickory smoke flavoring. 
         Ingredients in Pearl St. Plank Rub: Maple sugar, smoked paprika, salt, chiles, garlic, and yellow mustard powder. 

Lastly my other most used spice, other than the everyday things like garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, curry ect., is the Cantanzaro Herbs. This has replaced my Italian Herbs and Spices mixture from my previous spice shop (which shall remain nameless). To be fair when I compared the ingredients they are virtually the same, but how much more fun does Cantanzaro Herbs sounds? I put this in my store bought spaghetti sauces or any type of Italian food I might be making. It adds a great flavor to everything.
          Ingredients: Garlic, lemon peel, marjoram, basil, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. 

Oh I almost forgot, I love the Tomato Powder as well. My favorite part about it is that I can make a small quantity of a tomato paste without having to buy a can of tomato paste, use a tablespoon, then waste the rest. I also put this in red sauces or anything with a tomato base, giving it a much richer taste.


As I said earlier I don't live by the shop so I make all my orders over the phone, paying with a credit card. They ship the spices to me directly and I usually get them in a couple days. This is how it works for everyone, not just because I'm related to the owners. I often check out the website to see what other blends I might want to try, but then call my order in to my personal spice man. Here is the shops contact information if you are interested in trying some new spices or blends. Baseball season starts Monday so I'm sure we will be doing lots of grilling, trying out some of our new blends soon. I will let you know if we find a new favorite.

Contact information:Phone: 405-525-9119 (Yes, we do take phone orders and will ship.)email/facebook okc@savoryspiceshop.comTwitter: @savoryspiceshopokc4300 N. Western Ave., OKC, 73118Hours: Mon-Sat 10-6  Sun. Noon-5

Things that fill my home

Last night, while wondering around my house picking up, after everyone was asleep, I began to take inventory of what fills my home. Currently my house is full of baby supplies, chairs, swings, gyms, car seat, and blankets. Pacifiers are strewn about, empty bottles, and burp clothes. There are boy toys galore, construction hats, cars, trains, action figures, and stuffed animals. The book shelves, that use to house picture frames now hold baskets of toys, puzzles, or are full of children's books, horribly organized. I reorganize them occasionally, but usually I leave them a mess. Zane puts his own books away and he needs to know that how he does it is just fine. I want him to know he did a great job, not that I need to redo his work. There are little bits of parenting everywhere. My need for organization and a clean house have been tamed by a the need to raise independent, helpful, children. I resist the urge to organize all his kitchen food by type, everyday (I do it occasionally, don't get me wrong) or organize his plates and bowls after he puts them away. I let him put these things away the way he wants and am fine with however it turns out. I let him clean his own shelves and don't clean them again after he is done, it's good enough. I give him actual jobs, not busy work, like putting his clothes away, dusting, putting away his dishes, helping change his sheets, and swiffering the floor.  This takes a lot more time than doing it all myself, but he learns how to be a helper, take part in the work, and he loves it.

As I looked around I thought about how different my house is now than how it looked when we moved in three years ago. Then it was full of school books, decorative picture frames, candles, and all sorts of breakable items. My house was always impeccably clean, it was what I did with my free time. All my books were organized, spices were alphabetized, and dishes in the cabinets were perfectly put away. An organized house makes me happy, I'm not going to lie. I can relax more when everything is put away and has a home. However, our house wasn't really "lived" in until we filled it with new little lives. Our kids have filled this once large house up so now it feels slightly small and over flowing. But really it's full of love and our happy family. Full of memories, fun, and all that makes us happy. I know we won't live here forever, it's too small for a forever home, and I would love not to live in the middle of a city at some point. I will be sad to leave here, the house we brought our boys home to. The place were we started our family. Were we have laughed, cried, and grown so much here.

The snap shot of your house tells a lot about where you are at that moment. Currently the snap shot of my house, which I have refrained from actually showing because it is a hot mess, would show that our lives are a bit crazy currently. Though I feel like I'm constantly picking up, putting things away, cleaning, organizing, it still is a mess. There is a little tornado running around undoing my work and his name is Zane. Most of my free time, when I'm not over seeing potty breaks, snack time, nap time, meals, laundry, or bedtime I am trying to snuggle and get to know my new baby boy.

The coffee table can stay a little messy, the table can be a little dirty, some toys can be out of their baskets, dishes can wait to be done until the boys are sleeping, and everything will be fine. It could be much worse or it could be much better, but my kids would be less happy. It's a balance I'm still working on. Currently I'm happy to have a front door with pictures drawn on it with window markers, walls covered with little boy art work and sticker charts, and a less than impeccable house, filled with a happy family.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Potty training continues here. Yesterday Zane became completely done with the whole M&Ms for reward system and I was starting to feel bad about the large quantity of sugar he was consuming. This led to a frustrating, long, day. I went to The Dollar Tree in the evening for some more interesting prizes (aka lots of things I will throw away soon, but whatever.) I was surprised by the selection. They actually have Disney things, including lots of Mickey Mouse and super hero trinkets for the prize basket. Today went quite well. One minor poop accident in the morning, but other than that no accidents all day. HOORAY!!!

2. I did come up with some fun indoor activities to keep us busy. The first project was a box, mailbox. This turned out to be a big hit, especially after making "cards" from the inside flaps of the box. We had to write on the cards, put "stamps" aka stickers on them, then deliver, and pick them up. The shopping cart worked well for our mail cart, providing more entertainment this morning as well. Success!!!

Here is the mailbox. The red duct tape really made the box if you ask me. Zane's decorations were great as well.

 Jingle Boy was Zane's mail man helper.

 Here is Mr. Alligator getting his mail delivered to him. Sorry to say that shortly after this Mr. Alligator's house was caught on fire and Zane had to "come to the rescue." 

 Delivering Rowan his mail. He read the letter to him as well, which was quite entertaining.

There was more letter decorating and delivering today as well.

3. Next up animal footprint painting. Really this turned into painting on his animals and sometimes using them as paint brushes. Best part of this idea, he got to wash them afterwards, because God knows there is nothing Zane loves more than doing the dishes. Imagine his excitement when the dishes were dinosaurs. He actually got them clean, so no clean up for mom.

Zane did a few foot prints prior to moving on to painting the whole animal, which was much more fun.

 He hasn't worn pants in days! I think he is starting to like it.

 All clean!!!

4. Last up on my entertainment idea list for yesterday, vinegar and food coloring dropped into a pan of baking soda, making a fizzy, colorful reaction. This was a miniature science experiment and once he figured out how the medicine dropper worked it was lots of fun. I left all the stuff out and he has done it a few more times today. I was batting a thousand on the entertainment front, which was good since I was quite frustrated on the other parenting fronts yesterday. I think he tasted either the vinegar or the baking soda today, leading to a little vomit today, classic.

6. Today's funtivity was a lizard's house. This was an idea I came up with on the spot, sans internet research, which is always more fun. Some of Zane's new "pee pee prizes" are little plastic animals. They weren't "selling" too well so late in the day I came up with the idea of making a lizard house from a shoe box. This was a stroke of genius that led to hours of fun. We had to decorate it, make a door and windows. Then the lizard needed a bed, a couch, a TV, and of course we had to bring them cars. This also led to Zane choosing another lizard for a prize the next time he went potty. So now there is a mommy and daddy lizard. Maybe they can have some bug or frog friends since there are also little plastic bugs and frogs in the "pee pee prize" bucket!

Rowan is taking notes back there on how this whole "playing" thing is done. The sparkly show box was Zane's Valentine's Day box from daycare so it was already mostly decorated. Zane thought it needed some red duct tape to finish off the look.

 On the left you will see the lizard bed (tissue box top covered in kleenex and to the right a valentine covered in red duct tape, making a beautiful, leather, lizard couch.) The lizard TV is drawn on the back of the box in front of the TV, of course.

 Mommy lizard drives a red hummer and the Daddy lizard drives a blue pick up, in case you were wondering.

6. Do to all the potty training, and Zane requiring a lot of attention, I feel like I don't get to hang out with Rowan much. I know he doesn't need much attention, and sleeps most of the day, but would like to be able to focus on him more. Such is life with two kids I guess.

7.  Speaking of Rowan, here are some fun facts about him that I forgot in his one month update because I am exhausted. He loves his pacifier, he hates being covered up with any sort of blanket, he gags a lot, but rarely throws up. He has delicate, long fingers, just like his daddy, and his hair seems dark to me, but apparently really blonde to everyone else in society. This is probably because his brother came out of the womb with the white hair that he has now. He sleeps through his brother's craziness, which I hear younger children do. We  moved him into his three month clothes this weekend, which are a little big, but the newborn clothes were getting way too tight. He is getting much better with his head holding up, specifically during the hours of 7-9pm when he looks like quite the big boy.

 Look at this cute baby, holding up his head, like a big boy!

 Here he is, sleeping, having kicked off his blanket, while his brother was running around like a crazy person.

8. Rowan's one month appointment is tomorrow. This means shots, but hopefully not too crabby of a baby afterwards. His doctor finally said we could give him a stool softener to help with his pooping issues.We are on day one of this regimen and he seems much better already. I might have lost it a little bit on the nurse who told me to increase the Karo syrup for the third time. Had I followed their recommendations he would be on a pure Karo syrup diet by now. I'm sure it helps some people, it did nothing for my constipated little boy. I think his reflux medicine is starting to help as well, so he should be a much happier boy at night time soon.

9. I had to put my schedule in for May through the middle of June today. This was traumatizing on a couple of fronts. First of all it includes my 30th birthday. I guess this is alright, but kind of weird. No, I don't have any plans, obviously. Secondly, I don't want to take Rowan to daycare. I hate it. It's better with Zane because he has a good time now, but taking my babies is the worst. They are just being cuddled and loved by someone else. In good news I'm going back part time, which in nursing world is only two twelve hour days a week. I can do it!

10. Zane is ready for the Easter Bunny to come to our house. He talks about him a lot, at the most random times. It doesn't feel like Easter at all because it is freezing and there is snow on the ground. It should be smelling like daffodils and hyacinth, but they are all frozen. Where is spring time???

Potty Training and The Big Snow

Today started with the exciting milestone of Zane sleeping through the night for five nights in a row, hence earning himself Monster toys. Yes, he is nearly three and him sleeping through the night for five days deserves a celebration. Have I mentioned he has always been a terrible sleeper? I had gone to get the Monster toys yesterday due to reports of a huge snow storm coming our way. The reports turned out to be right, for once, so we had a family snow day full of more potty training fun. Here is Zane, bright and early, with his Monster Toys!

The rest of the day we vegged out while watching the beautiful snow fall. Turns out that this snow was perfect for snowman making. After nap time Zach took Zane out to make a snowman. Zane lasted as long as it took to roll the bottom portion from the backyard to the front yard and then he came inside to warm up. We watched the rest of Daddy's snowman making from the door. The end result was an epic snowman, the likes of which I have never seen. This snowman even require a ramp to get the midsection in place, how fun!

There was much improvement on the potty training front today.We started the day by gathering up all his diapers and putting them away for Rowan. We wrote Rowan a little note and taped it to the bag. I asked Zane what he wanted to put on it and he said "Umm... let's see.... to Rowan, Love Zane." Short, sweet, and to the point. Then we took them downstairs where they will stay until Rowan needs them. Zane was accident free until around four when I think he got bored with the entire thing and didn't care if his white undies got wet. There were a couple accidents within an hour, one due to his not asking for help, and then things got better when he got back into Mickey underwear. I felt like he told us more independently when he had to go today and we spent much less time cleaning the floor. He seemed to do better with us asking him if whatever character on his pants were still dry rather than if he needed to go potty. Also, he prefers to wear his underwear backwards so he can see the picture. Seriously, who designs those, little kids want to see Mickey, not have other people see him. Though watching a two year old try to see his bottom is very entertaining for the parents, maybe that is what they were going for.  All the poops went into the potty, which makes the whole thing bearable.

Here is Zane, eating an M&M, basically the story of the day. We did mix up the rewards some today too, which helped. We happened to have suckers, chocolate robin eggs, and jelly beans at our house, what does that say about us??

 I had to take a picture of Zane eating a carrot, just to prove that he did eat real food along with his candy.

 And this is what Rowan did pretty much all day. Sleeping in various. He is really a great baby, to the point that I feel like maybe I should pay more attention to him, but he doesn't really need anything currently. I should count my blessings I guess.

 We "watched" a lot of movies today. And by watched I mean put in, Zane watched ten minutes, then moved on. We are staying upstairs for a few days until we get a little bit more confident in the underwear situation. This requires a bit more imagination since there isn't a lot of free space to just run around. I spent most of the day on Pinterest trying to find fun things to do inside for the rest of the week. So far I have come up with making a mailbox out of a cardboard box, dropping vinegar on baking soda with a medicine dropper, balloon ping pong, dinosaur footprint paintings, and baked cotton balls. Today's ideas included paper plate sharks, color scavenger hunts, picking things up with his claw, and scaring the animals in his farm with his new monster toys. We are desperate and welcome all suggestions, we are going to be inside all week!!!

Rowan's Newborn Pictures

We had Rowan's newborn pictures taken at our house a couple weeks ago. He slept the entire time except for the last picture in this slide show, which was after he had lost it and I had to feed him. Zane wasn't really feeling the brother photos or the family photos for that matter so we took what we could get and hopefully he will be more excited about picture taking in a couple months. Rowan was amazingly well behaving, sleeping through us putting him in all sorts of adorable positions. Here is a link to the photos if the movie/slideshow doesn't work, I have little to no confidence in it. Also, you can use the link if any, say Grandmothers, Aunts, or Uncles, want to buy some adorable photos of the newest Korenak boy.

All photos are from Dayna Pollard photography. She has done both of my kids pictures since they were born and thoroughly enjoy working with here every time. Thanks Dayna!

Friday Round Up

I missed Ten on Tuesday this week, but once you read the weekly round up below you will see why. We have had quite the busy week at our house, full of fun and family, but no time for blogging. Today Zane went to daycare so I had a minute to jot down a recap. Let's see how many numbers I can come up with.

1. We hit up all the STL winter activities for kids while Abbey and her crew were here. Sunday we went to the Magic House. Rowan and I missed most of the fun while he ate lunch. I could feel people looking at me thinking I was insane for having a newborn there. I was slightly concerned myself, but ended up sitting in the snack area the whole time, so it was fine. An hour into the visit Zane said his stomach hurt. I have learned that when Zane says his stomach hurts he usually is about to projectile  vomit, so we headed home early. In reality I think he was just exhausted from the terrible, and I do mean terrible, night's sleep (or lack their of) the night before. I didn't bring my camera along on this trip, but we saw all the highlights, the car, the babies, and the fish before leaving.

2. On Monday we went to the science center to see the dinosaurs. Zane made a break through and finally went up close to the dinosaurs, even yelling hello at them before we moved on. This only took four visits, but he isn't scared of them any more. I think everyone had a good time and then we moved on to classic STL Italian food on The Hill. Again, didn't manage to get the camera out, though I did bring it. There was a spring break crowd so it was too crazy to take any pictures.

3. Our last outing was on Monday to the Butterfly House. I was pretty exhausted by this point, but I think the kids had a good time. Inside the butterfly exhibit it is extremely hot so they didn't hang out very long, but there is also a great playground and a carousel once you have seen the butterflies. The butterfly house wasn't crazy busy so I could take lots of cute pictures.

4. Those were the outings of the week, but a lot of time was also spent playing in the basement, having lots of quality cousin time. Here is the whole crew, in their PJs, after bath time.

 Maggie, "holding" Rowan, Brendan doing a great job holding his little brother, and Zane being his normal crazy slef. 

 Maggie and Zane, best friends, well... usually!

 These two are going to be best buddies in no time. 

 Cousin love!

5. Oh right, there was also a lot of rough housing and scenes more like this.....

6.Here is Miss Maggie and Rowan, love this picture. She gave some older sibling tips to Zane while she was here.

7. Here is Rowan with Aunt Abbey, soon to be his Fairy Godmother as well. So glad they could come meet our little man and their newest nephew. Zane and Maggie had a fun conversation about Godparents and were very excited to learn that they had the same Godfather, Uncle Able, who they both agreed was very silly and wore silly hats. 

8. Little E hit a new milestone while here, standing up holding on to only one hand. He is going to be walking in no time. We hadn't seen him since Christmas and boy is he growing up fast. He is such a cuddly baby. I wish I could snuggle him more often. He, luckily, is also a very chill little boy who entertains himself while the crazy old kids run around him.

9. In other news we also have started a sleep chart for Zane. The before mentioned terrible nights sleep, which included Zane waking up crying randomly at least five times Saturday night, pushed me over the edge. I randomly came up with a sticker chart, which seems to actually be helping a bit. The first night we had it he woke up twice, hence not getting a sticker. The past two nights he has slept great, no crying, no fits, and dinosaur stickers when he woke up. After five nights of dinosaur stickers he gets a prize (yet to be determined). The past two mornings he has come into my room and said "you sticker me mamma." ABSOLUTELY!! Here he is with his chart!

10. Coming up this weekend, starting potty training for real. His daycare workers tell me he is ready every day I when I pick him up. He goes poops in the potty a lot and totally gets the idea. W are going to Target Saturday morning for big boy undies and then saying some prayers to our Lord above that all goes well. His daycare is closed for spring break next week so he will be here for a week. We will see how it goes. There is a good possibility that I will loose my mind and give up, but have to try at some point. Right??

I guess that's all the news from the past, very busy week. We enjoyed the Richards visit, though it did end with Maggie getting sick and everyone being slightly terrified that the whole crew would be throwing up. Knock on wood, everyone else seems to be fine. I know the eight hour drive with three kids can't be an easy one. Thanks for coming to visit Richards Family!!!