Norwish Recipes

I think if the recipe boxes of older ladies in the world (say ages 75 and up...) were scoured, there would be a wealth of fabulous recipes to be found. Some of the very best recipes that I have, are from these dear little women who have collected recipes for more years than I've been alive. This is one of those wonderful recipes that comes from an adorable little 90-year-old lady that lives around the corner from me. I like to go visit her on occasion and she almost always has something tasty to give me or my kids while we are there. I always beg the recipe from her and she is always so sweet to share. She carefully writes down the recipe on a card and gives it to me the next time I see her. The first time she gave me this recipe, I lost it a few months later and I happened to mention it to her how sad I was about that. To my surprise, the next time I saw her she had once again, carefully re-written it down by hand for me. I told you she was sweet. Honestly. I cannot stop dreaming ...

Did you catch my post on Monday about Kefir ? I hope so because today I'm going to share a recipe that uses the Kefir milk that I described making in that post. This is my favorite kefir smoothie that I drink almost EVERY SINGLE day for breakfast (I'm actually drinking some right now as I'm writing this...). I usually make the whole recipe and then put half in the freezer for the next day so I only actually have to do the work every other day. Lazy, huh? The next day I just pull the frozen kefir smoothie out of the freezer about an hour or two before I'm ready to eat it and it's ready to go. It makes a great on-the-run breakfast. I actually use this smoothie as a meal replacement (half the recipe is perfect) and it works well to add the chia and flax seed to give it a little more substance. I'll sometimes have a little bit of toast or an egg or something on the side if I need a little more carbs or protein that day. This smoothie is packed full of healthy foods...

This post is waaay overdue! For those of you who have been waiting for it, I apologize! For those of you who didn't know you were waiting for it, I apologize as well. It's been a while since I've done an installment of Monday: Meet Whole Foods. For those of you who aren't familiar with this series, I like to introduce a healthy whole food and teach you a little bit about how to use it. I hope to do lots more of these in the future, but today's is especially important. Hold on to your hats, folks, today I am pleased to introduce you to: Kefir A kefir grain How do I say Kefir? I pronounce this word "Kee-fur", but as I was doing research for this post, I found various sources saying why or why not this pronunciation is or is not correct. It's beyond the scope of this post to argue any pronunciation points, I'm simply here to share what's awesome to me about Kefir (and in case you're wondering I plan on pronouncing it "kee-fur" for th...

Making your own play dough is so easy and a lot cheaper than buying it from the store. Kids love play dough and it's such a wonderful toy to let kid's imaginations run wild. I've posted before about a favorite play dough that we make and I've recently updated it to include a picture and printable recipe. We made it the other day for my younger son and a friend that was over to play. They had so much fun helping to measure and mix the play dough. My son's friend had to leave before they had a chance to play with it, but we sent half the batch home with him. Then my son played with his while I was making dinner. What a great time he had. Today I'm sharing another favorite recipe for play dough and the fun thing about this one is that it's edible! I love how easy and quick it is to make (no cooking necessary). I made it the other day for my kid's after school snack and they had a lot of fun playing with it. Peanut Butter Play Dough Printable Recipe INGREDI...

Happy Fall! And fall means it's birthday season around here. We celebrated my husband's this weekend and it was a lot of fun. He LOVES and I mean LOVES a good German chocolate cake. I had never really been a huge fan of it until I married him and his mom shared her family recipe with me. Oh my. It is so good. We have a restaurant in town that makes really good chocolate cake including German chocolate and lots of people rave about it, but it really doesn't compare to this recipe. This is the best. One of the nice things that we've recently discovered about German chocolate frosting is that it's a frosting that can easily be sweetened with just honey. It took a few tries to perfect, but I got it down. And just for fun, today I'll share both the original and honey-sweetened options with you. For my husband's birthday (and in the pictures), we actually made the honey-sweetened option. He loves it. There is a bit of a honey flavor that's not present in the o...

I have been swamped the last few days. Picture me in my kitchen covered with purple grape juice and you know what I've been doing. Canning season is always busy, but always so rewarding. I love the sights and smells and tastes of the season. Speaking of sight and smells and tastes. Do you ever daydream of food? A friend of mine posted on her facebook page about making some roasted pasta sauce the other night and I couldn't stop daydreaming about that yummy looking sauce until I created my own version of it. And oh my. I've been daydreaming about it ever since. I made it two days ago and had it for lunch yesterday and again today and I will not be satisfied until I eat it at least 2.2 more times this week. It was so yummy. If you happen to be reading this today it's your lucky day because I happened to have had a few seconds to post it for you to make. It is the perfect dish for this time of year. Roasted tender vegetables mixed in a sauce made from fresh roasted tomatoe...

It's back to school time and one great way to save money (and encourage your children to eat healthier) is to pack them a lunch from home. I've mentioned in another post a bit about my thoughts on school lunch versus home lunch. We let the kids choose one day a month to eat lunch provided at school if they would like. The rest of the month we pack them a lunch at home to bring with them. I'm always on the lookout for ideas and tips to make planning and preparing school lunches easier and more enjoyable for my kids. Today I'll share a few ideas and then I'm really hoping that you'll all share your fabulous ideas with me. Question 1: How will they carry it? Plastic bags and reusable containers work well and CAN save money. I say CAN because it depends. Are your kids responsible to not throw them away or lose them? If they throw them away or lose them, that's just money down the drain. We've actually done both ways. When my oldest son was in first grade, h...

We had a wonderful peach harvest this year off one of our trees, a fair harvest off another and will enjoy our first (very meager) harvest two more two trees later this month. Is there anything better than a perfectly ripe, juicy fresh peach picked fresh off your very own tree? I really don't know. At the moment I can't think of anything.  We've actually had such a great harvest that we've had more than we could eat fresh. Which is saying something because we eat a LOT of fresh peaches. I've loved it because I've gotten to try out and discover some delicious recipes with them this year. The recipe I'm posting today is a peach spin off of these lunchbox apple tarts that I posted earlier this year. Have you tried them yet? You really should. They are amazing. Totally delicious. And the peach version is equally delicious, if not more. I think if I was creating a menu with these I would describe them as follows: A light and flaky pastry filled with juicy morsel...