Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 12

Tentacle Pot Pie

We've been celebrating Halloween all month with creepy and fun dinners themed after the spooky season. This Tentacle Pot Pie was fun and filling. Certainly one we'll put on our regular October menu. Ingredients: Pie Crust 2 1/2 cups flour1 teaspoon salt6 Tablespoons butter, chilled and cubed3/4 cup shortening1/2 cup ice water
Sift together the flour and salt. Add the butter and shortening, and cut in with a pastry cutter until it becomes crumbly. Slowly at the ice water, a tablespoon at a time, unti...

Simple Pleasures

If there's one thing that the world needs more of, it's joy. There are lots of places I've seen and experienced joy, and one of them...is Peter eating. He's the first one to the table for every meal, always asks for seconds, and it's rare--RARE--that I serve him something that he doesn't like. There seems to be a correlation between how messy Peter is by the end of his meal to how much he enjoyed the food. Sure, we could feed him one spoonful at a time, but part of his enjoyment is being able to do...

Purple Mountain Majesties

After our quick stay in Utah, we continued west on our way home through Colorado. Though Jack and I have both been several times to the state, it's been a long time since we've been to the Rockies. What better time to revisit them when we're already driving through them anyway? The first day in Colorado, we decided to drive through Colorado National Monument, which was the scenic route for the direction we were headed. It's in one of the dustier, drier parts of the state but is no less gorgeous. ...

Kate is Eight

Kate is eight, and she loves everything about the fact that her age now rhymes with her name, but mostly that she's now a year older, while I'm left wondering where the time went. Eight years ago, we were in our first house in Iowa, Jack was finishing up his schooling, and we were getting ready to move to Indiana for his first fulltime job. She grew up through our first Indiana fixer-upper home but by the time she was only a little girl, we were on to our second. Through all this change, some th...

Creamy Skim Milk Yogurt

We've been making our own yogurt in our Instapot for a while but when there was a sale at the store on almost-expired skim milk, I couldn't help myself. But, that also meant I had a fridge full of almost-expired skim milk. Solution? Creamy, delicious yogurt made out of skim milk (also called Icelandic or Skyr yogurt). It uses rennet rather than fat to make it set up, and it can be strained as little or as much as you like. We can't taste that it's non-fat, and is delicious any way it's served up...

Chicken of the Woods

While out on a Sunday drive, we were taking a back country road when Jack jumped in his seat and told me to stop and go back. His surprise surprised me so I slammed on the brakes, threw the car in reverse, and waited for his explanation. The source of his excitement? Mushrooms.

Indiana Banana

A few weeks ago, the girls and I loaded up our bikes to go on a bike ride, leaving Jack, Henry, Zoey, and Peter to explore the nearby trails at the Morgan/Monroe State Forest. They didn't go far--after stopping at the visitor's center to get a little information, they went on a short tree identification path. When Jack spotted a pawpaw tree with unripe fruit on it, he couldn't wait to go back to pick it when it was closer to being ripe. The pawpaw is also known as the Indiana banana. It is the no...

We First Entered Utah

When our time was up in Idaho and we needed to start heading back home, our looping road trip across the west started heading south. We traveled with Jack's sister and her family to their home in Utah, where we overnighted before continuing on. Little Mrs. Quail sitting on her eggs in Amy's backyard.
Kyle and Amy were gracious enough to let us stay at their house, which is never a small feat when eight people invade your home, eat all your food, and take up all your free space. Jack up the tree to ...

The Waterfalls

During our last full day in Idaho, we decided to do a little more exploring. The weather was gray and rainy, which isn't particularly normal for Idaho in the summer but that didn't stop us (honestly, we'd been getting used to it since arriving at Yellowstone, where the cold and wet welcomed us to the mountains). We broke out the umbrellas, socks and sandals, and all the hoodies and jackets we could find.

The Upper and Lower Mesa falls were a quick drive and the hike was much easier and domestic t...

Twisted Pumpkin Bones

This recipe was a cute and tasty addition to our monthlong Halloween celebration. They taste like pumpkin pie in a roll and the kids had fun pretending which bones of a person they might possibly be. Gruesome, I know, but it's part of the fun of Halloween. These were ready in the time to took me to make the rest of dinner and the kids had fun helping which means less work for me. Win! Bone crusher!Ingredients:
Breadsticks 1 1/2 cups warm water1 Tablespoon yeast2 Tablespoons sugar2 Tablespoon butter...