Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Piwi approved Candy Apple pork

I adapted a recipe from the clean eating Magazine (Sept 09) Here is the original, I just took out the garlic , used honey instead of agave and doubled the recipe so it lasted for a couple of meals. The kids both loved it with brown rice and veges. It is not difficult to sell a food that has Candy apple in it's name! In fact that was what caught my eye in the first place! This will definately become a regular on our menu.

1/2 cup unsweetened apple butter
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. Honey
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 lb. pork tenderloin
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 cup toasted, unsalted almonds, chopped or Panko breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400. Heat oil in a non stick pan on the stovetop. Season pork buy rubbing it with the oil, salt & pepper. Sear pork until light brown on each side. In the meantime, mix apple butter, vinegar, garlic and cinnamon in a dish. When pork is seared coat it with apple butter mixture. Place tenderloin on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the pork for 15 min. or until done (a meat thermometer is the best tool to get it right). Remove pork from the oven. Roll the pork in toasted almonds or just sprinkle almonds on top. I used Panko bread crumbs for the Piwi's meat as they aren't too keen on nuts unless it's peanut or almond butter!).

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working at the car wash...

'Blue Car' was in desperate need of a clean. I swear the Texas dust and pollens were about an inch thick. Miss K has always loved going through the car wash machine, Mini Piwi is not so keen. Since it was just Miss K and I shopping today, we called into our usual drive thru wash and. We even spent the extra $2 to get a seal coat (whatever that it). On a whim we decided to give the free vacuums a go. I was surprised at how much fun we had using the VERY high powered vacuums to get the backseat cleaner than it has been in years! The highlight for Miss K was a mat cleaning machine. You feed a dirty old car mat into it, there is a lot of shaking and whirring, and the machine spits out your nearly new looking mat.

Once again I was reminded that even what I might consider a routine 'chore' may be something the kids will have fun helping with and might even learn a thing or two!

It took a car wash to remind me to see things through my Piwis' eyes!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Music lessons

This week we purchased three recorders in anticipation of starting Mummy led music lessons. I have not picked up a recorder in 15 years so I hoped it would come back to me. Armed with an instruction book I gave the Piwis their first lesson.
We started by learning the parts of the recorder, how to hold it correctly and how to make a sound. I am proud to say I heard some great 'b' notes from Miss K. Even Mini Piwi gave it a good try. Although the recorder looked nearly bigger than she was. There was no way, as expected, she was going to be left out of music lessons.

We chose to begin with the recorder because of portability and ease of use. The idea is to get the Piwis aware of musical timing and for Miss K to learn to begin sight reading a few notes. As she gets more confident she may want to choose another instrument. Currently she thinks she wants to try the flute and the guitar....at least they are more portable than a piano!

Absolutely Lucy Review by Miss K

I liked this book because I love dogs. Mum and I took turns reading it because the words are just right for me. The pictures were cute. The boy in the book named Andy is very shy. Sometimes I am shy to meet people so I was happy he made new friends.
 

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