I’ve been dreaming about making these mini banana splits since I first laid eyes on them a couple weeks ago.  The girls and I made them together yesterday (more them as you can see). Ours didn’t look as amazing as the ones in the recipe, but man, they tasted sooooooo good! Our dinner table hasn’t ever been so quiet as when we were eating these. :)

Sosi made the rice crispy snowmen for a dinner we had with some friends on Saturday. She had seen a picture of some popcorn marshmallow snowmen in an old American Girl magazine we had lying around and has been fixated with making them ever since… like mother like daughter!

This past week has been filled with quite a bit of chaos. New puppy craziness, less time to work or sleep, children with fevers,  a broken dishwasher. When life gets like this and I feel the chaos starting in on me I always find calm in the kitchen.

My sweet friend Lesley often leaves cookies on my doorknob. Around here we refer to her cookies as “Lesley cookies”.  They are big and delicious, full of butter and chocolate chips… totally unapologetic cookies. Last week there were a new type of Lesley cookies on our doorknob, even better than the original. So good I had to make some myself… and I want to share the recipe with you.

Lesley’s Other Cookies

2/3 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 white sugar

Cream until fluffy

beat in 1 egg

and 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup of oats

1/2 cup coconut (unsweetened, medium dessicated)

1/2 cup flour

Stir up. Add handfull of raisins or chocolate chips. Drop into cookie pans, bake at 375 degrees. 10-15 minutes until brown around egdes.

… and in the tradition of Lesley you must go hang some on someone’s doorknob. Enjoy!

Soup and slippers, two essentials for this time of year. This morning they matched.

Soup: beet soup, my recipe. (which is to simply find all the beets in the bootom of your fridge and put them in a pot.  Add red cabbage and red onion because they’re purple too.)

Slippers: Camper slippers, best . birthday. gift. ever. (thanks Paul)

I think Thanksgiving has to be one of my favourite holidays, mostly because it is centered around food… in particular pumpkin pie. Sosi shares my deep love of pumpkin pie. I always make her a mini pie, because I know she has a hard time waiting until dinner to have some.

I finished Ila’s dress. It turned out so great, so cute and cozy. I used this pattern here and made a few modifications. I will definitely be knitting more dresses!

Sosi and Paul have been crazy about biking the Confederation Trail (or the Trail, as we call it) this summer. He usually takes her after supper to give me some time to myself.

She is unstoppable, and usually returns bragging of fox sightings, of how beautiful golden time (golden hour) is and of biking all the way to the airport!

The other night we headed out just the two of us for the first time.  I couldn’t believe how peaceful and beautiful it was… and how close it is to where we live! I haven’t biked much since we moved here, and I’m realizing how much I miss it. I used to boot all over Vancouver with Sosi on the back of my bike. It’s quite something now to look over beside me and see her little smiling face.

We didn’t see any foxes, but we did spot some bushes full of gigantic rosehips and stopped to pick them. Our mother daughter adventured continued on the next day when we decided to make jam from them. We used the recipe for Rose hip Jam from “Apples for Jam“. I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out pretty good.

I love when Sosi and I have alone time like this together. Such wonderful and unexpected things always come out of it.

Chocolate zucchini cake.*A cup and a half of oil seemed a lot to me, I put in less and it was still really rich and moist.*  This cake is insanely delicious… and yes, this is how I get most of my photographs. There is almost always a child standing on the table.

Cream of zucchini soup. I made up this recipe up. I sautéed garlic, 2 potatoes (cubed) and 3 big zucchinis(chopped up) in olive oil, added some stock and let boil for a bit. Then I blended it up with a hand blender and added a bit of milk and some parmesan. The kids and my husband both loved it… that doesn’t happen too often.

Happy zucchini eating!

I blew my budget at the Farmer’s market this week buying chanterelle mushrooms. Whenever I see chanterelles I think of my sister-in-law’s father. Every summer he would go into the woods to his top secret location (man, I wish I had found out where) to pick chantrelles to sell to restuarants.

Papa, as we called him, made us feel so welcome when we moved here. Sosi instantly feel in love with him and was quickly adopted in with his real grandchildren. He cooked dinner every Sunday and carted it all over to Nancy’s (2 blocks over) for us all to eat, bringing the whole family together.

He passed away 2 summers ago, and is sorely missed. Last summer I stopped in my tracks when I saw chanterelles at our local market, I knew I had to buy them… and our little tradition was born. I think Papa would approve.

These beautiful little mushrooms are insanely delicious. All I do is sauté them in some olive oil and garlic, add some heavy cream and parmesan then toss with pasta.

While we happily eat our weight in greens and veggies, summer is all about beer and BBQed hamburgers for me (closely tied with ice cream and homemade pizza on the BBQ).

Summer Food is the theme over at Small Fancy this week. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Having 3 generations together,

‘

a trip to one of my favourite places on the island for an afternoon tea.. just me and my mom,

barns right on main street,

strawberry tarts,

moments like these.

I was asked a few weeks ago to contribute some inspirational table setting pictures to the Cafe Mom site. This one was taken the day before the deadline with a babe in my arms and much surrounding craziness.  I need to get back to photographing meals, I love these photos.