My Favorite Recipes - Meet Amy Mitchell Soncarty, Colfax

Amy Soncarty is teaching full-time this year for the first time in her 22-year teaching career. Her oldest son, Brandon, graduated from Colfax High School last spring and is now a freshman at Boise State University.

Her other two sons, Jacob and Jaydon, are still keeping Amy and husband Kelly busy and amused.

Brandon reports he is enjoying BSU, the city of Boise and meeting new people. Many students there are from California, Hawaii and Montana, so he’s meeting people who are far from home. General requirements are filling his class schedule right now, and he’s looking at a possible major in pharmacy.

Jaydon, a seventh grader, is involved in an AAU basketball team, The Flight, in Spokane, and his season runs through March. Junior high basketball in Colfax starts soon. Jaydon is pretty much into all basketball all of the time.

Jacob, now in high school, enjoys playing video games and visiting his grandparents in Colfax.

He also enjoys playing with and taking care of the family dog who needs some TLC right now. An active German shorthair and a good hunter, the dog broke a femur and required surgery, plates and bolts. WSU did a fine job, and the family considered the bill an opportunity to thank WSU for the fine care for their animals over a lifetime.

Kelly Soncarty farms while Amy teaches. Amy graduated from Eastern Washington University in elementary education reading with a math minor. She received her MA in curriculum and instruction.

Kelly started college at the University of Idaho and finished at Washington State University in business marketing. He worked for her father, Gerald Mitchell, during college and was interested in farming when he graduated. Gerald taught Kelly the ropes and Kelly later took over the farm. The Soncartys married in 1988.

Amy has been an incredibly flexible teacher at Jennings Elementary in Colfax. She has worked half-time until this year, teaching kindergarten, first, second and third grades, PE for K-3rd graders, eighth grade reading, Title I and LAP reading and math, junior high arts and crafts, and coached Future Problem Solvers for several years. In several of those assignments, she partnered with another teacher.

She’s back in first grade, half-time last year and full-time this year and wants to stay there. Her special love is teaching reading and writing. Her first graders are now into new read-aloud books, The Chocolate Touch and the Junie B. Jones series. Also, her fellow teachers look to her for art ideas for elementary classes.

A busy farmer husband and active boys leave little time for hobbies. Amy and Kelly bought her grandparents’ house on the farm years ago and added a laundry/mud room and expanded the master bedroom to a master suite. Finishing another bedroom in the basement gave Jacob his own room. This past year they replaced kitchen appliances and countertops and added a new backsplash. A new fire pit in the back yard was added for the family to enjoy.

They hired a rock placement company to set the boulders that are the highlight of their landscaping in front. Amy’s favorite rock is shaped like a chair. Kelly didn’t really “get” Amy’s enthusiasm for rocks in the landscape, but she pointed out the advantages. Rocks don’t wither and die, they don’t need water, and they don’t overgrow their space.

With three tech-savvy boys, cell phones and computers get a lot of interest in the Soncarty home. Now that they have better cell phone service, the rest of the crew is shopping for a new phone for Kelly.

Amy and Kelly will soon celebrate their 25th anniversary, and they are planning a trip to San Diego or some other pleasant destination.

Recipes:

Hummus

This recipe was given to me by Jim Heidelberger, who is the school psychologist. He brought it for the staff one day and everyone loved it, so he kindly shared. When my husband grew garbanzo beans for the first time this year, I thought I would show him how proud I was of him that I was putting his crop to use.

1 16-ounce can garbanzo beans. (I used the beans washed, but straight from the field. I softened them by putting them in the crockpot on high for a few hours, or until they were at a canned bean consistency.)

1/4 cup liquid from the beans

4 Tablespoons lemon juice (start with less and add, depending on taste/consistency)

1 1/2 Tablespoon Tahini (Indian food section or World Market)

2 cloves garlic, crushed (I used about double this amount; again, to taste)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Pour liquid off beans and set aside. Mix all ingredients in a food processor (I used my Vita Mix blender). Once all of the liquid ingredients have been added, add liquid from the beans until hummus is the desired consistency.

*As a garnish I roasted 2 red bell peppers with olive oil and salt, and then I processed them into a sauce and poured it over the top. You could roast some pine nuts to a toasty brown and put them on top as well.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

This is crazy easy and a kid hit.

1 store-bought pie crust

1 can cream of potato soup

1 can cream of chicken soup (can use fat-free)

1/2 cup milk

2 cans Veg-all, drained, or the same amount of frozen veggies

1 large can of chicken, or 2-3 cups of rotisserie chicken

Mix all ingredients except pie crust in a large bowl; salt and pepper to taste. Put the bottom crust into a deep dish pie plate. Fill crust with chicken mixture, place and crimp top crust, vent, and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until golden brown outside and bubbly on the inside.

Popcorn Cake

I got this recipe from Pinterest last year. I went crazy making cakes for all of our parties and the kids’ teachers. It put me in the holiday mood!

2 bags buttered microwave popcorn

1/2 cup butter

16 ounce bag mini marshmallows

about 1 1/2 cups m&m’s

about 1 1/2 cups pretzel sticks

about 1 cup spice drops

Prepare a large Bundt pan by spraying evenly with cooking spray. Pop 2 bags of buttered microwave popcorn as directed on the package. Shake the grannies to the bottom of the bag; pull popcorn to the top and into a bowl.

Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter over low heat in a large saucepan. Add a 16 ounce bag of mini marshmallows. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat, pour, and mix well into the popcorn. Sprinkle and stir in the M&M’s, spice drops, and broken (not crushed) pretzel sticks. Stir until it looks pretty. Press the mixture into the Bundt pan until it is pretty condensed. Pop it out onto a festive plate and enjoy!