partly SUNNY

Winter birthday

2010-02-12T10:03:00.000-05:00

Following tradition, I made a birthday cake for the most recent big day. I wouldn't put it high on my list of successes, although I did try some different techniques, very basic ones, like using royal frosting and cookies as part of the cake.

Here it is:

I used my tried and true marshmallow fondant recipe from here, and made twice as much fondant as I needed.
I made gingerbread cookies for the buildings, which worked well, except I did not cool them appropriately, and they were slightly bent! Not good for the overall appearance. Points off!
And I used a royal frosting recipe from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion.
The buttercream icing that I used between layers and attempted to use as glue (note the qualifier here, attempted,) was the Wilton recipe. The webs are chocolate. Very easy and good results!

So I was pleased with the overall idea of the cake, and the individual parts of the cake, but the cake, when put together, was a bit of a failure. Here's why:

1. I did not realize how heavy 4 layers of cake would be. They smooshed they bottom layer, thereby causing a leaning tower of Pisa look. We had one crash during the construction of the cake tower. I ended up using wooden dowels to keep it steady, but was too lazy to try to add cake to wedge the tower back to straightness.
2. Gingerbread cookies need to cool completely or they will warp. My buildings were all a little bent.
3. I have no idea how to properly attach cookies to cake. Maybe I should have removed the fondant? Or maybe the buttercream was not a good adhesive. Twice with the cookie buildings falling off. Once they crashed into the rest of the gingerbread cookies. Royal icing transfer emergency!
4. Not sure I've got the whole royal icing thing down. Mine stayed sticky for days after it was applied to the cookies! It was so sticky, I tried using it to glue the buildings but no success there, either!

The birthday boy didn't notice these shortcomings--the crashes were very exciting and funny, and I guess all's well that ends well!

Couldn't resist.

2010-01-22T12:01:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I promised I would bake something and nobody would let the promise be forgotten, so I pulled out my King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion and tried a new recipe for us: S'more Granola Bars. I happened to open to the page they are on, and had all the ingredients, so we gave them a shot.

Well. They are delicious. And relatively bad for you. In the end we gave some away to various neighbors and piano teachers because I could tell we were going to end up with glucose issues. (By that I mean sugar highs, and crashes and cavities!) But we'll definitely make them again. They do look tremendously sweet, but the oatmeal somehow buffers that. They're good, I tell you.

S'more Granola Bars, from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (sl. adaptation)

yield: 48 bars (whoops, my bars were apparently a little larger than recommended.)

carbs: 6g complex carbs, 11g sugar, 1 g fiber in one bar.

4 C (14 oz) rolled oats

4 C (4.5oz) Rice Krispies cereal

3/4 C (5.25 oz) sugar

1/2 C (1 stick or 4 oz) unsalted butter

1/4 C (2 oz) water

1/2 C (5.5 oz) corn syrup

1 tsp salt

3 C (6 oz) mini marshmallows

1.5 C (9 oz) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 425 F. Lightly grease an 18 x 13 inch pan or two 9 x 13 pans.

Place the oats on the pan(s). Bake for 6-8 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent edges from burning. They won't brown, but should begin to smell toasty. Remove the pan from the oven. Transfer the oats to a bowl and add the cereal.

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, butter, water, corn syrup, and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, or until the temperature reaches 250 F on a candy thermometer. Remove the syrup from the heat and pour it over the oats and cereal, tossing to combine. Add 1.5 cups of the marshmallows and stir again until well combined.

Place the mixture on the prepared pan, patting it flat. Press the mixture into the pan; using the lightly greased back of another flat pan works well. Sprinkle with the remaining 1.5 cups marshmallows and the chocolate chips.

Bake the bars for 4-5 minutes, until the marshmallows have puffed and are slightly brown. Remove the bars from the oven and cool for about 10 minutes on a rack. Cut into squares while still warm. The easiest way to do this is to use a baker's bench knife to cut the bars into long strips while still in the pan, then transfer each strip to a cutting board to cut into bars. (I found that this was the hardest part!)

So give them a try when you need something sweet--they are easy to make. It's not particularly good as a kid-friendly recipe because of the boiling sugar mixture, but kids can sprinkle the toppings on. And taste test, of course!

summer in REVIEW

2009-09-25T14:32:00.000-04:00

We TRAVELED;

we met some real CHARACTERS;

saw new PLACES;

Ate very WELL;

saw some great ENTERTAINMENT;

made some new FRIENDS;

and had an all around GREAT TIME.

photos to FOLLOW

2009-09-24T13:47:00.001-04:00

time to recap the summer--photos to follow.

ReSTART

2009-09-23T13:46:00.001-04:00

Almost a year without blogging...time to start back up.

December 18

2008-12-18T09:06:00.000-05:00

Have some hot chocolate today!

December 17

2008-12-17T08:53:00.000-05:00

Today, deprive yourself of some little treat you usually have each day. Instead, use the money from that for a pleasant surprise for someone else.

December 16

2008-12-16T08:52:00.000-05:00

Take a moment to remember a loved one. Then make sure your actions honor them.

December 15

2008-12-15T08:48:00.000-05:00

Count your blessings: get to at least ten.

December 14

2008-12-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Hold the door for a stranger.

December 13

2008-12-13T09:28:00.000-05:00

Give someone flowers.

December 12

2008-12-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

In honor of my 100th post, have dessert today.

December 11

2008-12-11T09:23:00.000-05:00

Light a candle in memory of a loved one today.

December 10

2008-12-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

Give someone an extra chance.

December 9

2008-12-09T21:20:00.001-05:00

Watch a sappy holiday movie.

December 8

2008-12-08T21:15:00.000-05:00

Cut out a paper snowflake.

December 7

2008-12-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

Donate something.

December 6

2008-12-06T08:49:00.001-05:00

Bake some holiday treats; give some away.

December 5

2008-12-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

Write, email or call a friend who's not expecting it. (Christmas cards don't count.)

December 4

2008-12-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

Read a holiday story.

December 3

2008-12-03T08:43:00.000-05:00

Buy yourself a gift for under two dollars.

December 2

2008-12-02T08:40:00.000-05:00

Look at old photos.

December First

2008-12-01T20:39:00.001-05:00

Tell someone they look nice today.

2008-11-29T16:07:00.001-05:00

Off to the high school reunion tonight....

Oh boy.

Check It Out

2008-11-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is a fun site to check out: test your geography knowledge and donate water.
http://www.freepoverty.com/
I need to get me a globe.

New Art

2008-11-21T12:58:00.003-05:00

Just in: New work from local artist (ink on paper)

The City

The photo does it no justice; it's fabulous!

Let's Face It...

2008-11-12T00:02:00.001-05:00

Ah, Facebook, I thought you might be a nice way for me to keep up with and reconnect with some of my old friends...and you were, for a couple of weeks. I did find that a bunch of my friends, with whom I could (and sometimes do) communicate in other ways, such as telephone, email, hell, even a visit now and then, do in fact have facebook accounts, or walls, as the case may be. So nice to be able to write a quick, informal note saying hello or passing on some bit of news.

But then I caught the bug. Started looking for people I know, or knew at some time, but with whom I'm not close--just to see who is signed up with you! And then I looked at their friends--did I know any of them? (And why would that be important?) So surprisingly addictive! Luckily, I don't know that many people any more, and I've forgotten a larger number of people I used to know than I'd like to admit. So my life was not consumed by you.

And further luckily, I did not use my name to sign up for you, so I'm hoping that not so many people are looking at me. (Thank God for that genetic paranoia.) But looking is what people do on your pages, and all sorts of people are "making friends" through you, and I suddenly realized that I'm not all that sure about the etiquette there, and what do I do if someone invites me to be friends and I don't want to be? I don't want people I'm not really friends with but who have become my facebook friends reading my little messages to and from my (real) friends! I'm not putting any photos on you but that would be even worse! So now I'm feeling a little bit gross about you.

Also, although I think it is totally fine to have a blog that is all about me, I think it is kind of icky to keep inputting to your pages what mundane things I might be doing at any given time, so that my friends can keep tabs on me. Firstly, my life is just not that busy. Secondly, I'm self-absorbed, but that's ridiculous. Thirdly, well, thirdly, I just don't have time to stop and take a moment to jot down that I'm washing dishes, or drying my hair, or going out, etc. Icky.

And now the kicker. One of my new facebook friends invited me to join one of your clubs, Facebook. (And in this case, new facebook friend does not equal close friend, at all.) Oh dear. So I went and looked at this club, and it is not cool. I do, in fact, know almost all of the forty some-odd members of this club, and really, none of them are my friends. None of 'em. Frankly, darling, I don't want to be friends.

So now what, facebook? Do I have to go dark, so that I can pretend that I never saw the invitation? Maybe I should get a new facebook name and account, and start fresh, and have no friends at all? Do I just stay away from you? Can I manage that? The dilemma, facebook, the dilemma of it all.

Thank you.

2008-11-11T22:57:00.002-05:00

To the American Veterans and Military Personnel:

Thank you for protecting me and my freedom.

So Long.

2008-11-06T17:18:00.003-05:00

Goodbye, Sweet Summer.

My Garden's Last Tomato

Hello Fall.

My Front Yard Today

I 'm Pretending Spring Is Coming.

Forcing Bulbs (in the Kitchen)

My Reality

2008-11-05T00:02:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's that I've got a great imagination, or maybe I really am becoming paranoid, or maybe I'm just really perceptive, (I like the last option,) but lately my first take on some things happening around the neighborhood has been a bit different than what, in reality, has really been happening. Is this just something that happens to me? I can't decide if I'm a little crazy, or if everyone does this kind of thing.

Let me give you some recent examples.

1. 7:15 on a sunny Tuesday morning. I am drying my hair in the bathroom. Through the mirror I note a huge black SUV with darkly tinted windows pull up in my neighbor's driveway. (My neighbor has just arrived home from an international trip. I'm not sure what she was doing. Could have been vacation, could have been...something else.) I immediately imagine men in suits popping out and converging on the house, Feds of some sort, which is interesting to me, until I think, what would stop them from coming for me? And then I actually start to get nervous, and review in my mind what I've done illegally recently, or how I may have breached federal security, when the door to the SUV opens and my neighbor's cleaning man pops out. Good morning, cleaning man! Glad you're not a fed! (as far as I know...)

2. 8:55 AM on a cloudy Thursday morning. I am driving the car on some important errand. I drive past a lawn service van with a small trailer attached. I note the driver, a balding middle-aged man with a twitchy look in his eye. Later, at approximately 3:20 PM, I note again the twitchy lawn man and his van, about 5 houses away from the morning spot. Still looking twitchy. I begin to wonder what he actually has in that trailer: kidnapped kids? Neighborhood pets? Unsuspecting housewives? Stolen goods obtained from the neighbor's homes? From my home?! Luckily, I later find out that no one and nothing is missing.

3. 4:00 PM on some day last week. I look out the front door and to my surprise a cat jumps out at me. We have no cat! Where is this cat from ?! I am afraid of cats! Immediately I slam the door closed, because, who knows, the cat could be some sort of ploy to get me out of the house, or at least to open the door. (Didn't you see that episode of Criminal Minds?) The kids come around to see why the door slammed and one notes, "Oh, there's the neighbor's cat, Fred." Well, maybe. I still hold that there could have been someone in the bushes.

4. Okay. It's Halloween. I lock the house up tight, turn on all the outside lights, and take the screens down from the windows. I draw all the shades on the first floor and make sure the motion detector lights are on. I get set up at the front door with my bowl of candy and my phone, in case I need to call 911 at some point during the night. Several times during the trick or treating visits I have to suppress the urge to make the big kids in creepy costumes take their masks off before I give them candy. (They were big kids, with scary masks, though, and what better way to stage a hold-up, then that?) Yeah. This one is more to show you my paranoia then my imagination, I guess.

5. Today, at work. I continually think I am feeling a breeze on the back of my legs. I am wearing a dress and tights with boots today. I notice that frequently am reaching back and smoothing my skirt. By lunchtime I realize that this is not just a feminine habit. I will admit that I am paranoid, and refer you to this post for more information about this particular issue. Of note, I do have a moment of hysterical laughter in the bathroom at the memory of that particular day/post.

So what do you think? Crazy or not crazy? I must further admit that these few occurrences are probably just a drop in the bucket of my looniness, but my short term memory is gone, mainly due to lack of sleep, and a lot of the time this stuff all seems normal to me, so it doesn't stand out in my memory. Keep that in mind as you vote.

Voting Day

2008-11-04T21:55:00.003-05:00

Did you vote?

No complaining if you didn't!

Book Club

2008-10-21T00:02:00.001-04:00

I'm in a new book club. We had our first meeting last week, and although turn-out was low (isn't that uncommon in a book club?) it was fun. We read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, which maybe was a little intimidating for a first book. I enjoyed it, because it is so different from the usual murder mysteries I've been reading. Of course, now I have the desire to speak with a British accent and go around town leaving my calling card (work? who needs work? don't we all live on the interest of our savings, which of course, we inherited?)
But I digress.
I'll let you know when the new book is picked, and you can read along if you'd like. Maybe we'll have an online book club meeting to discuss. I have to go have some tea and scones now, and maybe a cordial to cure my maladies. Ta Ta!

Tomatillo Surplus, Salsa Success

2008-10-20T22:12:00.008-04:00

This year's garden was kind of a bust.

The carrots didn't grow because, even though they were in a planter two feet off the ground, and inside a fenced yard, something ate their greens. So we got maybe ten carrots.

Something was up with the cukes: the first crop, started indoors, failed at the end of July. I replanted and got some nice plants with a ton of flowers, but everything died pretty quickly, leaving me with four misshaped cucumbers, and not all that tasty, either.

We got one teeny tiny pumpkin, but what can you expect, when you try to grow a pumpkin vine in a container.

All my strawberries were eaten by creepily aggressive chipmunks. And where are those chipmunks now? I'd rather not think about it, but if they're in my house, I will move out.

All my Roma tomatoes rotted on the vine. From the inside out. Not a nice surprise, I tell you, to cut into a shiny red tomato and find rot spilling out.

My beefsteak tomatoes were delicious, but only 5 grew to ripeness. Granted, they were each the size of a cantaloupe, but still.

My little Italian Ice grape tomatoes were tasty but yellow, not white, as advertised.

We got a ton of wax beans, but this year the kids decided that wax beans were no longer their favorite veggies, and in fact, they despise wax beans.

We had one green bean plant that gave us maybe twenty beans. One kid ate them all, refusing to share.

Our sugar snap peas were poor producers.

And what can you do with eggplant like this? (Each is approximately 1.5 inches in diameter.)

The lettuce was a success, so I have no complaints there.

The broccoli grew into plants resembling bonsai, and never even bolted.

The radishes were great, and plentiful in the spring, but a replanting failed. (Long, spindly roots?)

The chile peppers were good, but I only managed to grow four on two plants.

And finally the tomatillos: they were (are, because frost doesn't seem to be hitting them yet,) the takeover plant of the garden. We were supposed to have a frost this weekend so I picked around fifty tomatillos, leaving another fifty still growing, on my three plants. And now I have to figure out what to do with them! I'm afraid to can things, because of the whole risk of killing people if you aren't careful (and with my ability to be distracted, I'm likely to do just that)

so I have been making salsa.

I used a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook:

Salsa

Prep: 30 min Chill: 2hrs to 2 days

Makes: about 2 cups salsa

4-6 tomatillos, husked, rinsed and finely chopped (about 1 Cup), or one 11-13oz can tomatillos, rinsed, drained and finely chopped

2 small tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped (3/4 C)

1/3 C finely chopped red onion (1 small)

2-4 fresh serrano, habanero, or jalapeno chile peppers, seeded and finely chopped

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp snipped fresh cilantro

1/4 tsp salt

4 cloves garlic, minced ( I used 2, and it was plenty garlicky!)

Stir together tomatillos, tomatoes, onion, chile peppers, lime juice, cilantro, salt and garlic. Cover, chill for 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Unfortunately the salsa is NOT a good luck charm. The Sox still lost.

Brunch

2008-10-05T16:41:00.005-04:00

Today was brunch at our house, for a celebration of a bunch of family birthday parties. The weekend was really quite busy, with the usual slew of children's social events and activities, so there wasn't too much time for planning, and even less time for cooking and prepping. The guests included 8 adults and 7 kids, so there weren't overwhelming crowds of people to cook for, and I though that brunch was the easiest and most relaxed way to go. Plus, it's been cookout after cookout here for the most recent social events (which may tell you how infrequently we entertain, as now it is October in the Northeast. And it's rained for the past 99/100 days, which is only a slight exaggeration. )
I decided on quiche, which I hadn't tried before, but I picked some recipes that didn't require a lot of prep. I ended up prepping the ingredients and making the crust dough last night, and it was simple to throw everything together today in between the various early morning activities we had.

It turned out to be quite a feast: my mother and sisters each brought something delicious and when the last of the guests had gone I was still feeling uncomfortably FULL.

Here's the menu. Most of the recipes I used were new to me, and I was happy with all of the results. I got most from the Food Network website, and I've linked where I could.
To Start:

Bagels and a variety of cream cheeses, compliments of my husband, who brought them home from Providence.

Crepes with berries and whipped cream: I used a basic crepe recipe, and made a berry mix of strawbs, bluebs, and raspberries, added a touch of sugar, and let it sit overnight.

The Fruit Plates:

Poached Pears in Vanilla and Champagne

I really enjoyed these: they were firm and sweet and delicious. The recipe is by Emeril Lagasse. They weren't a big hit, but I didn't really present them well. Yum.

Cinnamon Oranges

These were good, too--fresh and light, which was nice because the main options were heavy. I'll make these again because the kids liked them. This is a Bobby Flay recipe.

Prosciutto-wrapped Melon with Mint

Not particularly new and different, but everyone seems to eat these. I myself am a little leery of the prosciutto. I know, it's been made for hundreds of years, but still, not cooked?

The main part of the meal was quiche. I made three, and aside from each taking about twice as long to cook as the recipe recommended, they were really easy to make. I made my own crust for two of them. One calls for Pillsbury crescent dough. So easy.

Savory Three-Cheese Quiche

Another Bobby Flay recipe, this was the least eaten quiche. It's not as pretty as the other two, but quite tasty. This was the one I had the most trouble with as far as telling when it was done. It also had the lightest texture of the three.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

I'll be making this again. It was really really good. Paula Deen's recipe was easy to follow and after reading the reviews of the recipe, I cut back on the cream by approximately 1/3 Cup. I think there's only one piece left now. My arteries are clogged.

The last quiche I made came out of the oven after guests began to arrive, so I didn't get a photo. It's a Ham, Tomato and Swiss Quiche, recipe by Cathy Lowe. This was by far the easiest to make, (pillsbury dough) and of course, therefore, got rave reviews. (It always seems to me that the harder the recipe, the fewer compliments you get, but I'm thinking that might be because of my lacking cooking skills.)

Desserts included a Chocolate Ganache Birthday cake, made by my sister, blueberry muffins, made by my other sister, which, to be honest, were eaten as appetizers, at brunch and for dessert. My mother brought her highly sought-after oatmeal raisin cookies, which I admit, I tried to hide from the company (darn kids always pick up on that stuff...) and I made apple pie, with a mix of Macs and Cortlands. I haven't even gotten a chance to try the apple pie yet, I'm so full (and constantly eating the oatmeal cookies is not helping...) but it looks good.

That's today's doings. I'm so tired and full, I need to go lie on the couch!

My New Chocolate Bar

2008-09-30T21:46:00.006-04:00

This is one of my birthday presents! A ten-pound bar of chocolate, have you ever seen such a thing? My husband tells me that this is baking chocolate, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what he's talking about. I think this is snacking chocolate.

In reality, if I ate this chocolate the way I am tempted to, I'd have to visit with the dentist, the dermatologist, and likely hire a personal trainer, as well. (To be honest with you, I should be making appointments with all of these types anyway, but for different reasons. )

Ahem. I do hate the dentist, though. I bring my kids when I am supposed to, but find it very difficult to make an appointment for myself.

So, back to topic--now that I have a gigantic chocolate bar, I am going to bake and bake and bake chocolate things. If I ever get off the couch, which isn't looking to be any time soon. Is anyone else really tired? I swear it's the season. Possibly the fact that I am getting an average of 6.5 interrupted hours of sleep a night has something to do with it, also; the interruptions being random children visiting at odd post-midnight hours. Or the phone ringing (no, not from you calling, sister, as I didn't even wake up when that happened...)or other random noises disturbing me, although now that I'm so sleep deprived the possible disturbances are not waking me.

Aargh. I'm going to bake. Chocolate things. And I want some ideas. Give me some ideas!

(Please.)

PS. Shout Out, apple picka--Happy BirthDay!

Tea and Scones

2008-09-18T20:36:00.011-04:00

Having become bored with healthy food (see also the vegetable soup entry) and the recently-acquired-Halloween-oreos-with-orange-filling having also lost their shine, I turned today to one of my favorite cookbooks, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. This is a great book with a zillion recipes (maybe less) and lots of interesting facts and helpful advice.

A while back (like four or five months ago) I picked up some clotted cream while shopping at Whole Foods, with plans to make some scones for a brunch that was coming up. The scones never happened and during a recent fridge clean-out (actually, it was an emergency fridge clean-out, as a large jug of maple syrup on the top shelf spilled, right over the little shelf lip and down onto the rest of the shelves,)I found the clotted cream, which, luckily enough, had not expired.

So today, in a rare moment when everyone was either asleep or at work or such, I finally got a chance to make some scones, which, in fact, I've never made before--partly because I've never gotten around to it, and partly because I never really liked scones, as they always seem too dry. I settled on the Christmas Scones recipe because I had all of the necessary ingredients.

These scones have a nice buttery taste and a slightly rustic texture, due in part, I think, to the oat flour. They're very moist, too, and just a little bit heavy. The kids and I had a nice afternoon snack of Tea And Scones (and clotted cream.)

I altered the recipe somewhat, out of necessity and laziness. First of all, mine are nut-safe; I substituted 1 C chocolate chips for the pecans. I used oat flour, too, because I bought some for a recipe I never made and now am trying to get rid of it. Furthermore, I added two tablespoons of granulated sugar. It may somehow seem that I did this for a reason related to altering the recipe in a way that might better suit me and my family, but in fact I erroneously started reading the recipe on the next page and added some of those ingredients to the bowl. Luckily several ingredients overlapped, so only the sugar was extra. I didn't have any buttermilk around so I used this recipe: one tablespoon of vinegar and enough added whole milk to make one cup, let that sit for a few minutes and call it buttermilk.

Also, I hate hand-mashing butter into dry ingredients so I mixed all the dry stuff with my stand mixer and then added the butter, which I had cut into cubes, and once it looked like it should I added the fruit and chocolate. I also let the stand mixer mix the buttermilk but I was careful about the 20 second rule.

The recipe: makes 16 scones.

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

1 C rolled oats or oat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 to 1 tsp salt, to taste

1/2 C brown sugar, packed

8 tbsp butter, room temp

1.5 C cranberries cut in half, or 1 C dried

1.5 C pecans, halved

1 C buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Mix the dry ingredients, including the brown sugar, together in a large mixing bowl. With a pastry cutter or your fingertips, gently cut or rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like cornmeal. Mix in the fruit and nuts until they're fairly evenly distributed.

Stir in the buttermilk, taking only 20 seconds to do it. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured board and, with floured hands, knead gently 8 to 10 times, just enough to bring it together.

Cut the dough into two pieces. (Keep sprinkling on flour if you need to.) Form each into a disk and, with a floured rolling pin, gently coax each disk into a round about 7 inches in diameter. With a bench knife or sharp knife, cut the round into 8 wedges. Do this by cutting straight down through the dough so you shear the edges. If you saw the dough, you tend to press the edges together, which keeps the scones from rising as they bake.

Place the wedges on a lightly floured baking sheet (two pizza pans are perfect for this), turn down the oven to 450 degrees, and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they just begin to brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm with butter or double cream.

It's a pretty easy recipe, and the dough's not difficult to work with. Enjoy!

Vegetable Soup, or Something Like It

2008-09-18T20:36:00.007-04:00

Finally, a bounty from the garden! I even have cucumbers growing after my first crop failed at the end of July. Everyone else in the neighborhood has a garden this year, so now that all the vegetables are ripening at once, I had to find something to do with them. In an effort to get the kids to eat them, I tried a new recipe from a cookbook I recently bought called The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook, by Andrea Chesman. It's a great book, arranged by season and vegetable. The recipes I've tried have come out really well.

Tonight's recipe is: Tomato-Vegetable Soup! Not that exciting. I know. Very easy to make, and eaten by everyone in the family. I don't have a food mill so I simply strained the tomatoes. I also added a pound of elbows instead of the 1/2 cup of soup pasta (it's the only way I could think to get the kids to eat it, although they were so proud of themselves for having picked the vegetables that went into it they probably would have eaten it for that reason alone.)It took me about an hour to make it, and I managed to control the masses at the same time. Granted, it was more like some sort of noodle dish then soup because of the overdose of elbows, but

Here's the recipe to serve 4-6:

8C chopped tomatoes

5C vegetable or chicken broth
1-2 leeks or 1 large onion

1-2 carrots
1/2 pound shell beans in pods (1C shelled) or 1C chopped green beans (I used chopped wax beans)

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano leaves

1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
3 garlic cloves, minced

salt and pepper

kernels from two ears corn

1/2 cup small soup pasta (optional)

sugar (optional)

pesto (I didn't use any pesto)

Combine the tomatoes and 2C of broth in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the tomatoes are completely tender, about 30 min.

Meanwhile, thinly slice the leeks and carrots. Shell the beans.

Pass the tomatoes through a food mill to remove skins and seeds.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the leeks and carrots and saute until the leeks are soft, about 4 minutes. Add the shell beans, remaining 3 cups broth, tomato puree, oregano, thyme, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the beans are completely tender, 20 to 30 minutes.

Add the corn kernels and soup pasta, if using. Continue to simmer until the pasta is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. If the flavors do not seem balanced, consider adding sugar, 1/2 tsp at a time, as well as more salt and pepper. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls. Top each with a spoonful of pesto and serve.

Ten reasons to Not Food Shop with Children.

2008-09-09T20:19:00.003-04:00

1. If you've never dropped a glass jar of tomato sauce, you will when the kids are with you. And then you'll have to be all "good example" about it and go and get a manager, etc. If you don't drop tomato sauce, you will drop a container of those little mozzarella balls in liquid. Those guys can Bounce. Kids will chase them helpfully and then stomp them into a slippery trap for those shoppers not accompanied by children.

2. Kids can tip over a pretty much full shopping cart.

3. My children enjoy the acoustics of the local market, exercising their vocal cords, and false vocal cords, usually in rage.

4. If you are food shopping with kids, you will definitely run into your arch-rival from high school. Or junior high. And she or he will recognize you and you'll have a conversation. Interspersed with little phrases like, "How come you dint take a shower today, mommy?" and "Why that lady have a big black mark on her face?" and "I thought you said she's not your friend."

5. Kids do not choose produce the same way adults do. They prefer to test produce by squeezing it. Testing it's explosion factor. What I mean is, squeeze produce until it explodes. Some kids prefer to stick their finger as deeply into the produce as possible, creating a testing tunnel, so to speak.

6. Children have the engineering skills to dismantle the ticket dispenser at the deli, unwind approximately twenty tickets, rip them off and hand them to you. They're too short to be seen over the counter by the deli clerk, so you will bear the brunt of his angry glare.

7. Occasionally a child will have an unexpected reaction to lobsters in a tank, screaming "Bugs, Bugs!" and becoming hysterical while trying to escape from the giant attacking bugs.

8. If you have children with you, you will get into a checkout line with a benign-appearing cashier and bagger, but the bagger will turn out to be a creepy kid-scaring type who will say something to cause each child to attach themselves to your body or clothing and stay attached until you pry them off and put them in the car. Along with the groceries.

9. For some reason, kids feel compelled to taste test any edible samples being offered, but will refuse to swallow any sample, thus causing you to carry the spit-out and masticated sample in your hand, as there are no trash barrels in the supermarket.

10. Children lose things like mittens, hats, shoes, socks, and sunglasses, not all belonging to themselves, in the market. Even if you go right back into the store, you will never ever find these objects again. I think the creepy bagger guy has a single-sock collection. Beware!

Peach Pie in the Summer

2008-09-01T20:10:00.003-04:00

I made Peach Pie today.

I grew up in New England, eating apple pie and cherry pie, but I don't think I ever had peach pie until I made it for myself a few years ago. I like it. I like most any pie, to be completely honest with you, though.

I was so taken with the peaches we got at the orchard a few weeks ago that I made a second trip out today to pick up some more before they go out of season. Gravenstein apples are in season too, so I bought a bunch and I'm hoping to make some apple pies later in the week. Once I finish with the peaches, that is--I bought a 1/2 bushel today, and still have 18 peaches left; I made four pies today, and can probably make one or two more.

Have you ever heard of Gravensteins before? I never had, but apparently they've been around in North America since the 1700's. I guess they're making a comeback now. Although how you can stage an apple comeback when they grow on trees that take a while to grow to fruit bearing, I can't quite fathom. hmm.

I'm going to taste test the peach pie now!

The Eclair

2008-08-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

This month's DARING BAKERS' CHALLENGE was to make Chocolate Eclairs, from a recipe by Pierre Herme.

It was a great choice by

Tony Tahhan
and

Meeta K.

The cooking method that is highlighted in this recipe is the creation of a Pate a choux. I've made this kind of pastry before, but, as with the other methods I've covered with the Daring Bakers, it's not until I've done it with a Daring Bakers' Challenge that I really begin to understand (and, more importantly, remember!) it.

Of course, my favorite part of the recipe is the chocolate stuff: the sauce really is great on its own--oh, you know what I mean, I'm not just drinking it straight, (really.) but on top of some other good thing--and the glaze is quite nice, but the chocolate cream is really fantastic.

I enjoyed making the eclairs, although I'm stumped by how one tray of the pastries totally collapsed once removed from the oven, while the other didn't. Could it be that the collapsed eclairs were a little bigger than the nice puffy ones, and therefore were undercooked and so sunk once they hit cool air? I dunno. See?

Nice Puffy Eclairs:

Sad Sunken Eclairs: (Still Tasty, Though):

Hmm...

So here's the recipe: not too hard, just a little time consuming. Over all, quite enjoyable to make. I myself do not care much for eclairs, or most puff pastry, for that matter, but generally these guys got rave reviews from the tasting panel. (Guests at a well-timed party.) Sakhtein!

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs

Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.
2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.
3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total bakingtime should be approximately 20 minutes.
Notes:

1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill thebottoms with the pastry cream.
3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.
Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.
2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.
2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to.
You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.
3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.
4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.
Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.
2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.
4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.
Notes:
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.
Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly  in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.
2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Add all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Our Trip to the Orchard, or, How I Got My Color Back.

2008-08-19T07:22:00.001-04:00

Since it is apparent that I will be eating fried green tomatoes and green beans and yellow pumpkin flowers this year, we headed out to the nearby orchard/farm to see what else was growing. It's a great place: as you drive up, you smell the doughnuts cooking, no matter the season. In the fall you get the cider undernotes as well. There's a barrel of apples to taste test, and candy, and jellies and jams, and pickles, and doughnuts and muffins and pies, and whatever fruits and veggies are in season. This weekend, peaches and blueberries were in, and the first apples of the season, J-Macs, were up, too. We bought lots of good stuff, and now I don't know where I'm going to find the time to bake with them!

Who am I kidding--they're already disappearing; there won't be enough left to cook with!

It's not easy being...

2008-08-18T07:23:00.000-04:00

Go ahead and say it:

GREEN.

I love green in the spring, I love it in the summer, but come on, I need some variety! See, here's my problem--everything is green!

My garden has lots of good things growing in it, but everything is green.

It seems a little late to me, to have no color blooming in the place.

No blush on the tomatoes, no shiny red on the peppers.

My little grape tomatoes are supposed to turn white; but nothin'.

I suppose I'll accept that the green beans are green.

Ooh, some yellow! Right, this little pumpkin plant hasn't even made it to the green stage yet!

Man, that's an ugly flower. Hey, at least it's not green!

Birthday Cake: A Short Chapter in the Saga

2008-08-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

I make a birthday cake for my husband every year.

It started as a pretty regular cake, but quickly became a one- to two-day event. I was making all kinds of crazy cakes, with names I can't pronounce (but would be able to, if I were French, or were a real chef/baker.) This year I wimped out, using the kids as an excuse, but really the cause was laziness, and I made a pretty basic good old fashioned cake, which turned out just fine.

I managed to burn out the hand mixer (I mean come on, it was only what, forty years old? I thought it had a few good years left!) so I got quite the workout during my baking experience. Which was okay, as I pretty much bailed on my pre-vacation plan to run every morning and swim every afternoon. Oh, hey, did I mention that every year my husband's birthday is during our vacation? So these are vacation days by the sea that I am spending trying to bake things.

Simple as it was, the cake had multiple ingredients on my husband's favorite's list, so I think it was a relative success. I myself, not liking cake much at all, (except coffee cake, and blueberry buckle,) am not much of a judge.

This is the cake: The blueberry and orange layer cake with cream cheese frosting from
Bon Appétit June 2001 :

and here is the recipe:

Cake

2 1/2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

Filling

2 1/2-pint baskets blueberries

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Frosting

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2-pint baskets blueberries

Preparation

For cake:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides; line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper. Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Beat in concentrate, peel, and vanilla. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with milk in 3 additions. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans on rack.

For filling:

Combine berries, sugar, and lemon juice in heavy small saucepan. Bring to boil over high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until mixture is reduced to 3/4 cup, stirring occasionally and mashing berries coarsely with fork, about 8 minutes. Chill filling uncovered until cold, about 30 minutes.

For frosting:

Beat cream cheese and butter in bowl to blend. Beat in powdered sugar in 4 additions, then orange concentrate, peel, and vanilla. Chill until firm but spreadable, about 30 minutes.

Cut around cakes to loosen. Turn cakes out. Peel off parchment.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread filling to within 1/2 inch of edges. Chill 5 minutes. Top with second layer, flat side down.

Spread 1/2 cup frosting thinly all over cake to seal. Spread remaining frosting over cake.

Mound remaining blueberries on top. (Can be made 1 day ahead; chill. Serve at room temperature.)

On Vacation

2008-08-16T21:55:00.004-04:00

Do you have a place in your memory, a place exemplifying the best of your childhood summers? So that when you think of that place, you see it in sepia or technicolor, depending on the memory or your mood? A place so entrenched as a part of you that a warm salty breeze or rain pounding on the roof or crickets in the cool night conjure a brief flash of the place?

We've been spending time at that place of mine--which isn't my place in real life, it's my parents' place, and my grandparents' before that; where my mother grew up with her sister and brother and best friend, and I grew up with my sisters and cousins, and now my kids and my nieces and cousins are doing the same. Where the grownups hang out on the porch long after dark and the usual bedtime hours, chatting and laughing; and the kids hang out in bed laughing and scheming. Where the neighbors are the same families as four generations ago, and the few new families are a good source of gossip and a good object of spying (depending on your age, of course.)

Here's where the kids get a real taste of freedom and self-responsibility. It's where you'll see your first shooting star, and where the milky way looks like a milky way. This is where you're brave enough to put your feet down even though that kid just pulled up a gigantic pinchy crab, and where you're brave enough to swim over to a jelly fish and capture it in a bucket. It's where you get your swim endurance and finally swim to the buoy; and where you get your land endurance and make it to the mile store for breakfast or candy or ice cream, depending on the time of day. On your way there, you'll screech when you see the bridge, and on the way home, you'll cry with your heart broken.

I love this place, with the rambling old cottage and the log at the end of the street at the beach, and that's where I've been spending my free time.

No blogging, nothing all that modern. So I'm back. I guess I'm back.

But there's still some summer left. I imagine that there always will be.

Not my stuff

2008-07-13T14:35:00.005-04:00

I've been looking around at the neighbors' flowers, nosy thing that I am. Here's my favorite.

I have ridiculously bad luck with hydrangeas but around here everyone else's always look fantastic.

I also find these roses lovely and reminiscent of childhood, probably because I'm pretty sure these are from a plant that looked pretty much the same during said childhood.

I know I'm going to lose my signal so I'll stop here. More later, next time we'll talk food!

Where the Danish Comes From

2008-06-29T21:47:00.004-04:00

Each month, I attempt a new baking recipe, meant to teach me a particular technique, as part of an online baking group called the Daring Bakers. This month's challenge was to make a Danish braid, and the technique I learned about was making a yeasted, laminated dough. It was such a fun challenge--and with delicious results, to boot.

I ended up making a cherry cheese danish; I was very pleased with the results, and the recipe(see end of post) was long, but very easy to follow. My downfall this time (there always seems to be a downfall!) was with the appearance; I was rushing by the end (it was midnight--I skimped a little on the rise, and was pretty messy with the actual "braiding" of the pastry.) But as you might be able to tell, the recipe was relatively forgiving, and my danish looked presentable, at least.

It takes a loooooong time to make danish pastry: there are lots of half-hour rests in the fridge and then an at least five-hour refrigeration; then rising the danish before cooking. But the results were sooo good, I'm planning to try again, and this time use the dough to make chocolate croissants.

The dough is fantastic. As far as the filling goes, I opted not to use the apple filling, as, coincidentally, my next door neighbor had recently brought us an apple danish she had baked. (Different recipe.) I ended up using a recipe for cherry pie filling from here and trying to alter it to make it a little bit thicker (not successfully); and made a cheese filling using cream cheese and condensed milk, with a splash of lemon juice. In the end, the cheese taste was not particularly noticeable, but the cherries were great.

The actual start of the "lamination" of the dough: (I thought this was so neat!)

The ugly "before" photo (kindly note the cherries oozing out) (and I should probably mention that I had to use extra dough to seal one end of the danish which was exploding like a volcano)(see it on the edge there?):

The final product (notice how much more civilized it looks than the before photo):
So good. Try it when you have a bunch of time to pay attention to it!

DANISH DOUGH

Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients

For the dough (Detrempe)

1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1/2 cup whole milk

1/3 cup sugar

Zest of 1 orange, finely grated

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 large eggs, chilled

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)

1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH

Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK

1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight.

The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

APPLE FILLING

Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients

4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces

1/2 cup sugar1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream topping, for muffins, cheesecake, or other pastries.

DANISH BRAID

Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients

1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

3. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash

Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking

1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown.

Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Forty Years and Six Courses

2008-06-23T21:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my parents' fortieth wedding anniversary!

The sisters and I decided to have a dinner party in my parents' honor--it turned out to be six courses, and was a total blast, from the Bermuda Rum Swizzles to start it off to the dance party (mainly the kids, but an occasional parent jumped up and did, for example, the robot, but that's a completely different story...) to finish it up.

The courses were assigned to different people, so I was a little afraid that the food wouldn't be complimentary, but it was. Here's what we had:

Appetizers: Assorted cheeses, Rum Swizzles (recipe from here), Crostini alla Mozzarella (I'm not sure where this recipe is from, made by my sister(sis, feel free to comment):)

First Course: Crab Cakes with garlic aioli, made by my sister:

Second Course: Chilled Cream of Sweet Potato Soup, recipe from here:

Third Course: Spring greens with Pears and Blue Cheese, made by my sister(sis, feel free to comment on the source:)

Fourth Course: Peach Sorbet and Plum Sorbet, from Frozen Desserts, William Sonoma:

Fifth Course: Bourbon-Glazed Cajun Tenderloin and Grilled Asparagus, from Weber's Big Book of Grilling, made by my husband, who has become a whiz at the grill:

(if not a culinary artist...)

Sixth Course: Vanilla Creme Brulee from Creme Brulee, by Lou Seibert Pappas:

Things went off perfectly, the food was great, the guests were happy. It was a nice way to celebrate forty great years.

And now for many more!

Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Thanks for getting married. So, you know, we could come along.

We love you.

More flower pictures because I love my camera. And my yard.

2008-06-16T21:46:00.009-04:00

Lots of rain lately. Thunder and Lightning tonight is keeping the household awake long after bedtime!

PostScript: I don't know what all of these plants are: the first one I'm not sure about; then:

strawberry

chicks and hens

rhododendron

honey suckle, maybe?

day lily, stella d'oro

hosta

Spring Days

2008-06-15T23:24:00.001-04:00

....

What's Up in the Backyard

2008-06-14T00:58:00.009-04:00

Here's what is growing in the backyard. Can you tell what each is?
1.

1. Peony

2. Thyme

3. Lavender buds

4. Blueberries

5. Mint plant (I can't figure out if it is spearmint or peppermint)

6. Climbing Hydrangea

7. Holly berries

8. I forget! Do you know? Let me know if you do.

And this is not my hair.

2008-06-13T08:20:00.000-04:00

Maybe you've read about my hair. This is not my hair. But I did this...

Under quite some duress, I might add.

Poor hair. It's so manipulated.

Note to self*

2008-06-12T21:52:00.005-04:00

*this really is a note to me; I needed to write it down and it is quite likely that nobody but me will find this interesting or useful.

Self--
you are completely horrible about documenting memories, something about which I am quite disappointed, as you always seemed the type to make photo albums and even, God Forbid, scrapbook. Anyway, these are some things you should remember.

1. That squeaky little voice your number three has.
2. "Goggy" for doggy.
3. It is tremendously cool to see that child read.
4. Your kids still get excited to swim in the little inflatable kiddie pool.
5. You inflated that not so little kiddie pool by mouth in 97-degree weather.
6. The light in number two's eyes when playing with the neighborhood kids for the first time.
7. The pride of the oldest because of beating the reigning champ of Around the World, on a birthday, no less.
8. The middle child is taking Irish Step for the costume.
9. Number three's personality is so great, the future is either as a convict or the President.
10. Your eldest child can already beat you in an argument. This is 2008.
11. You might be able to beat your baby sister at arm wrestling. Maybe.
12. Lucky for you, your number two sister laughs at all of your jokes, funny or not.
13. Your husband is afraid of frogs, but not bad guys.
14. Your husband would beat up a drunk man for careening into your sisters.
15. Number one-ism: "he can't have that toy what is mine."
16. By the time you were twenty, your friends thought your parents were cool.
17. And so did you.
18. Eldest niece: "Bad dog. DAMN BAD DOG!"
19. Kickie has amazing insight into social interactions.
20. JuJuBee would give me the shirt off her back.
21. Numbers two and three: penchant for heels.
22. You predict number one will be a preppy. Number two, either punk or haute couture. Number three-anything yellow, right now.
23. It's really cool how you can see all of the cousins in the face of the newest one.
24. There's no farm smell at your house!
25. You are so looking forward to hospitalists.
26. Your kids cry when they leave Hilltop, just like you did.
27. Future careers: artist; candy expert; live at Mama's house with Blankie.
28. The fun things you did this week: washed the cars with the kids in their bathing suits; played tree tag after dinner; saw the Bubble Man at school; read a library book to the kids; made chocolate chip cookies, some without chips for number one; only worked one day; shared a secret candy bar with your eldest on the car ride home; got a babysitter for a night out; shopped by yourself for an hour, had ice cream from the farm.
29. You are really really lucky.

Don't forget these things.

me

Bad Hair Day

2008-06-07T00:13:00.000-04:00

If I had to pick one part of my personal beauty care routine that is lacking, it would be my hair care. Unfortunately, there's not one part lacking; don't even ask about makeup. Don't even get me stahted! Really this is a rave about my ucky hair. Stop here it you'd rather not listen to complaining. Ahem. But the hair care issue really has been more noticeable lately, what with the 100% humidity and such. I'll give you the breakdown on my faulty hair philosophy in just a moment; first, a little history. I had lovely long wavy hair as a young girl. Dark and glossy, if the polaroids are reliable. Then came middle school, during which I decided to get "wings" cut in; not so much feathers, as many had: these things were sort of like bangs that were parted in the middle and swept off to the sides of the head, looking, as it were, like wings. I didn't quite know how to handle the hair dryer, so there was alot of frizz associated with this coif. High school was worse: by now my hair was curly and frizzy, and I still couldn't control the hair dryer. After a year or two of the winged look, and multiple curling iron attempts, I decided to control the craziness with a short haircut. I looked like a boy unless I let the cut grow out a bit, and then I looked like I was wearing a shiny brown helmet. Oh, how wicked pretty I was.In college I learned the scrunch technique (can you guess the era of which I speak?) and, well, I was in college, so I stopped paying to have my hair cut. Right, I cut it myself, even the back, often with nary a friend or mirror to aid me. I ended up with pretty ringlet curls for a few years. Maybe the bottom wasn't even, but. Good times. Anyway, after a few kids, my hair's not curly any more, nor is it straight; so I generally melt it into submission on a daily basis. I had a good cut a few months back, the first in, um, years. (My hairdresser is another story, I can't even start about her and me right now. (Am I right, sistas?)) I should have kept it up, but in my infinite wisdom, I thought, to myself, because no one else is really interested, so if you're still reading this post at this point, I thank you; Self, hey, grow your hair long, because humidity season is coming, and your head'll be frizzelicious, and so at least if it's long you can throw it in a ponytail and that's not so uncool. Nobody can really see frizz if it's in a pony. So I let it grow, and it's past my shoulders, but just past, and I can't really wear a ponytail to work, so now on the sides, it hits the shoulder and curls a little, so there's this icky crease in the bottom of it; (not in the back, I should think; but again, no friends and no mirrors...) or scenario number two, I am drying it so carelessly that the left turns under and the right flips out, like there's some sort of split end magnet off to my right and all the ends of my hair are being drawn to it; or hey, scenario three, there you are--we have three days of frizz, and the blowdrying is really not getting any of the humidity out of my hair, so there are random kinks all over, such that the hair does not even look symmetric all the way around, and there are these (oh, so cute, really not) icky cowlicky things up by the part. The cowlicky mess makes me look like a half-assed vampire and the asymmetric kinks somehow reminds me of the old helmet look. And what's the deal about the whole head of hair moving in one piece like it was hairsprayed? No lovely swinging strands for me. Just a mass shifting of helmety kinks. Scenario three makes me worry that I will not be taken seriously by anyone at all, as I have an appearance quite similar to someone who might not be in a stable state of mind. What? Oh, my hair's in a ponytail now. If I were younger, I would cut it down to about, I don't know, one and a half or two inches, and dye it platinum for a while, just out of spite. At least then it would look purposeful, not like I just got caught in a rain shower. Being a mom of a certain age with a certain job, I'm feeling a little hemmed in about that, though. Probably for the best. For now, baseball caps, ponytails, and the occasional clip. Maybe I'll tackle the straight iron...

Rainy Day

2008-06-04T21:59:00.004-04:00

It was the kind of day today that leaves you feeling somehow deflated. Nothing particularly bad happened (to me) but I wasn't able to fix problems like I usually do. It happens every once in a while in my job--usually I finish my day feeling that at least I did some good, but some days I just don't make a difference. At this point in my career I know that this happens; but it still feels pretty lousy.

This morning I took a picture that actually really fit the mood of the day.

I hope tomorrow's sunny.

My New Favorite Tree

2008-05-27T23:27:00.004-04:00

Years ago, when I was a student, during the most stressful (although happy) time in my life, I lived next door to a little house that had a beautiful tree in the front yard. Most of the year it just looked like any old tree, but in the spring, it burst into crazy fluffy pink blossoms.

Several years after I moved away, my husband was in the area again, and actually took a cutting of the tree (no, he did not ask the occupants of the house, but when I lived there it was a crowd of rugby players from new zealand, so we thought it probably wouldn't have been worth it.) But I couldn't get the cutting to root, so I gave up.

Last year I moved to my new house, and lo and behold, I have a new favorite tree! I don't know if it's the same type as my old favorite, but I love it. I think it's a cherry.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that maybe I can't call this my favorite tree; first of all, one of my children is calling it their own; but I myself also have a penchant for big old maples (with really fat trunks) standing in lawns near the road; they remind me of my grandparents' house; scrub pines, possibly the ugliest of all trees, remind me of childhood summers down the Cape; and then there's the Catalpa tree. I love those; the beans are so gross. Weeping willows: remind me of Boston in spring. So I am a tree hugger. Hmm. But this is my prettiest tree.

PS: I don't love all trees; I'm turned off to cedars ever since I had a cedar with a cedar apple rust: a giant orange fungus ball hanging from its branches. Yucko. Actually, kind of cool, once you figured out it wasn't aliens. (You can see one like it here.)

PPS: Wow, two blog days in a row!

PPPS: What's your favorite tree?

Long Weekend

2008-05-26T21:35:00.004-04:00

Memorial Day takes the place of Decoration day, established during the Civil War, mainly by the Union states, set aside for the decoration of Civil War vets' graves. After World War I, the name was changed (some of the states that had been part of the confederacy were not acknowledging Decoration Day) and it became a national holiday honoring fallen soldiers of all wars.

It's a solemn purpose.

Thank God we have citizens brave enough to defend us and our freedom.

Memorial Day weekend here was busy. Friday night we had swimming lessons, then dinner out (a rarity in this family); Saturday was a trip to my parents' cottage to clean up and open up for the season; Sunday was an Easter Egg Hunt Brunch in the morning (yes, postponed,) and a neighborhood barbecue in the afternoon; and today was a family cookout at our house.

I only got to try one new recipe this weekend, which I found while reading SmittenKitchen.com; it's a great blog.

The Strawberry Tart, adapted from a recipe by Dorie Greenspan, is fantastic, and simple. I think that this may be my favorite tart crust yet, and the custard is so good! You can see the recipe here.

I'm going to do some emergency laundry now. I sort of forgot about work and school this week!

May 19th

2008-05-19T21:59:00.004-04:00

I write this entry under duress, really; my husband has been harassing me about no entries for over two weeks. He hasn't been harassing me for two weeks; he harassed me today about the two week lag. I just don't have much to say. I thought about blogging about inappropriate-slash-socially unacceptable-backrubs last Thursday, but instead I called my sister and shouted and guffawed about that subject for about ten minutes on the ride home from the meeting at which said insult occurred, so that by the time I got home to the computer, I was all laughed out (and had finished with the post-creepiness shivers.)

Then I thought about blogging about the recent plants I bought, but I know how damn boring it all comes out on paper when I talk about gardening. So to really drive that point home...I did buy a couple blueberry bushes, a couple cranberry bushes, an elderberry bush, a couple Japanese hollies, and a bright orange azalea. So far I've planted the azalea. Everything else is still in the driveway. I did plant the rhubarb, the calla lillies, the peony, the glads, the dahlias, and the carrots. These guys were all seeds or bulbs or corms, so it's likely that nothing will grow, but it was fun to do the planting. And today I spent about an hour walking around the yard pruning things. THAT was fun. I don't know what it is about cutting things, but I love pruning, and I do enjoy cutting hair--my own, anybody's, really. See, but I'm digressing. And I'm not a hairdresser, by the way. Nor a barber.

So then I thought I should blog today and say Welcome Home to my brother-in-law who by now should just be getting home from India. Welcome home, brother-in-law! Woo-hoo! Home sweet home, right? Glad you're back in one piece.

And next I thought I should blog tomorrow and say happy birthday to my sis. Happy birthday little sis! I thought I'd utilize that do-it-ahead-of-time blog thing. Um, I haven't, but you likely won't read this until your birthday anyway. By the way, I'm going to say I'm a year younger that you from now on. And other little sis, I may say that I'm younger than you, too. Why not? I think most people will be too polite to disagree or otherwise comment. I just won't bring it up when you guys are around.

That's why I'm writing tonight. Not really my idea. But to those to whom it belongs, Welcome Home, Happy Birthday, Water the Plants, and Fine, are you Happy Now? (a wink , a smile, and good night!)

And Oh My, did you see Lester's no-hitter? Very very nice.

Feliz Cuatro de Mayo

2008-05-04T21:51:00.003-04:00

Today is Mayo el cuatro. The fourth of May. It's Sunday, and we had some time today, more time than we've had in a long, long while. So we had cinco de Mayo today, since Monday, well, Mondays generally suck, to put it bluntly. No time for a relaxing dinner.
As I am far too lazy today to upload photos of any sort, there will be no images to accompany these words. I didn't have much to show, anyway-as it turns out, I am not much of a food photographer.
So this is what we had for dinner:

Mock strawberry margaritas: fresh strawberries, frozen limeade concentrate and sugar;
nachos and salsa: store-bought nachos; homemade tomato salsa, with tomatoes, cilantro, onions, radishes, habanero, a clove of garlic and a touch of salt;
fajitas: store bought tortillas; my husband's secret recipe grilled chicken breast, scallions, grilled onions, tomatoes, pepper jack, cheddar and mozzarella cheese. (Couldn't find any tomatillos, will have to wait until my own grow...)

dessert was meant to be grilled pineapple, but we were so full we postponed it. In fact, I had planned to make flan for tomorrow, but now I may be off the hook since the pineapple is left over. We'll see. Most of the family does not like flan, so it's hard to get too motivated.

And that's what we did today. Plus the shopping. Food shopping aside, it was fun-I bought a couple of blueberry bushes, one early season and one mid season, so we're not overrun with blueberries all at once, and two cranberry bushes. And I finally found some chicks and hens for the rocks in the yard. Tomorrow will be fruit planting day- I've got a peach tree to get into the ground, too. It's only about three or four feet tall, so I probably have to wait another year or two before I see my first peach, unless I plant it in the wrong place. Then it will be longer. The blueberry bushes have a bunch of the little bell shaped blossoms, though, so maybe...and the cranberry bushes have bright red cranberries on them, which confuses me as to the harvesting time for those guys. I'll have to look into it.

Shout out number two to brother in law in India--sorry there's so much talk of tomatoes today! Hope they're feeding you well. Now I'm off to watch Bobby Flay make blondies. Which makes me realize, I could use something a little sweet. Oh--I also made some Mexican Chocolate cupcakes yesterday. I used a basic butter/chocolate cake recipe and added a bit of cinnamon to the batter. For the frosting, I made a chocolate sour cream recipe, adding a bit more of cinnamon, and just a pinch of ancho powder. They're good. I had a couple today, but now I want something else. hmm. Must go search the pantry!

My City

2008-05-03T11:56:00.006-04:00

I was talking to one of the kids, saying how much I love the city. After going on and on about how great it is, the reply was, "It's just a city, though, right?"

Oh well. We'll have to take more trips in town to acquaint these guys with the place.

On the subject of cities, my brother in law is on his way (still--what a long trip!) to a big Indian city today. Shout out to you, B.I.L.! Hope the travel's okay. Shout out to sis, too. Okay, and other sis, and Ma, so no one is left out.

This is the island where the Mallard family takes up residence in Make Way for Ducklings.

The Swan Boats, open for the summer, now.

Not sure what this is. Probably has some importance--

It is Boston, after all.

Rambling

2008-05-02T12:21:00.006-04:00

Well, I finally got on the treadmill and ran; and now I suspect I will be able to blog a bit more, mainly because I CAN'T MOVE! Good Lord, I'm in pain.

That's enough. Just wanted to get the complaint out. I'm not even expecting sympathy or anything, I know it's my own fault. But I did have that pneumonia last August (Last AUGUST) and then it was back to school and then the holidays and then the kids birthdays. But now beach season is looming so I'm back on the treadmill. At least I was yesterday. We'll see about the rest of my life.

Frankly I haven't had much desire to write here lately, since instead,I've been reading. I don't usually let myself read unless I'm up on my work reading, but I gave myself a break. I'm reading nothing very challenging, just murder mysteries and the like. My sister has started a book club and we're going to read Jane Austen; I've been trying to decide which of her books, though; I don't know, I've never read her before; I was thinking about Mansfield Park but then I read that it is her least-liked book (by the general public, I suppose,) so if you've got any input I'd love to hear from you.
In the time I haven't written, we had school vacation, and took a few fun day trips. We hit the nearby zoo and had a blast. The kids loved that there was a peacock just wandering around the place, jumping into other animals enclosures and strutting down the walkways. I myself get a little jiggy when the wild things are close by...
I think this guy felt the same way!

I like this picture. It seems a little unreal, a giraffe poking his head out of the barn.

That's all. Just some rambling ideas today. Happy weekend!

Cheesecake Pops

2008-04-27T00:22:00.005-04:00

I've joined a club.

I'm not one to join clubs, not since I was a kid, really, but this one seemed fun. It's called Daring Bakers, and you can view a list of all the bakers and their sites here. I generally don't join clubs and volunteer for stuff because I always feel like I'm not going to be able to hold up my end of the deal. And so it almost was this time.

I suddenly realized that the day I thought I was going to post was three days later than I was supposed to post. Luckily, after some last minute baking, everything came together. And I had a dinner party to go to, so I had a place to bring the treats!

The recipe is one of the messier I've tried. The aforementioned treats are Cheesecake Pops, from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. The recipe, in my mind, is of three parts. The first part is the making and baking of a cheesecake. (I thought for sure I'd have a massive overflow here!)

Anyway, I've never made a cheesecake before, so I was looking forward to this challenge. As it turns out, cheesecake is not particularly difficult to make. It's a bit of a challenge to decide when the cheesecake is appropriately baked, though.

So I baked this cheesecake, and then chilled it overnight. And then came part two of the recipe, which I have designated the cranky section. Ohh, was I cranky. The recipe recommends that you scoop out balls of cheesecake from the pan and then set the balls on the baking pan, insert the sticks, and freeze.

I could absolutely not scoop spheres of cheesecake. I could scoop, but not spheres. I tried rolling the cheesecake into spheres, like play-doh, but no luck; I ended up with gloves of cheesecake on my hands and tiny chunks of lumpy cheesecake on my pan.

Not a safe procedure with little kids running around doing bad things I needed my hands to put a stop to.

Noticing the crankiness level building, I quickly decided to switch to cutting cubes of cheesecake from the pan. Much neater, although there was a large amount of scrap cheesecake left. Easily eaten by various family members and passers-by, but still, I definitely think I missed some key step since my pops aren't spherical. Here's the pre-freeze pops:

Rather ugly, huh?

Stage three of the recipe calls for melting chocolate and dipping the cheesecake. Easy peasy and fun. I added crisco to the chocolate, as directed, which I've never done before. I didn't really notice a difference in taste or texture. Chocolate definitely helps make things look better: the pops weren't failures after all. I drizzled some chocolate on the scraps as well, and called them cheesecake bars.

Then I bundled up the pops for the party. Yum! Definitely a recipe to use again.

Growing Things

2008-04-14T21:49:00.007-04:00

Here's what's growing around here, finally.

Even the Lucky Bamboo is sprouting.

And the light coming through the windows is SPRING light. Similar to summer light, my favorite.

Now all I need is the dappled shade from leaves.

Well, sometimes one must acknowledge one's failures. The sun sank beneath the tree line just as I started shooting. Plus about six other things that are wrong with this picture. But it's the sun, setting LATE!

Yay.

Family Food

2008-04-11T14:20:00.003-04:00

Last night was "Lebanese Dinner" at my sister's house. (We're a bit Lebanese, if you're wondering how we picked this cuisine.) It was so fun! I, of course, took no photos, because I was too busy cooking. And eating. And eating and eating.

I brought the dessert, a simple, rustic cookie called Gahk. (Not gak, which I just googled, and is slang for street methamphetamine.) My cousin gave me her "Sithou's recipe" (Sithou means grandmother) and they're made of flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, raisins, milk, vanilla and margarine. (I think at some point they must have been altered, since my family came from the mountains of Lebanon, and I'm pretty sure margarine was not naturally-occurring there)...but anyway, they're easy. The recipe makes about 5 dozen. The cookies themselves are made by rolling small handfuls of dough into snakes and then creating rings. They look like donuts. They're probably just as healthy, too. But so good with a glass of ice cold milk!

One sister prepared the main dish, Fthoia (that's our pronunciation, but other Lebanese people have commented on our accent in the past.) Fthoia are dough triangles filled with ground meat; historically lamb, now often beef, cooked with chopped onions and pie nuts (snubel). Also historically deep fried, but we baked them for our arteries' sake.

Both the Gahk and the Fthoya really should be put together while sitting around the table with friends or family, gossiping and chatting, and made in large batches.

My other sister brought hummus and tabbouleh and Syrian bread, and my parents brought laham b'anadora, which is lamb and onion in tomato sauce. And we had a salad of tomato, onion, and mint. So good.

Here's the gahk recipe:

Sithou's Gahk, courtesy of cousin Kerri

5-6 C flour

5 sticks margarine at room temp (my cousin recommended Blue Bonnet)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 C sugar plus extra

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

0.25 C milk

1 C raisins

Blend all of the ingredients except the flour.

Once blended, add the flour, a little bit at a time, until the dough doesn't stick to your hands--then it's perfect.

Roll a small amount of dough into a snake shape, then shape into a ring, pressing the edges together.

Dip in the extra sugar to coat all over.

Bake at 300 for 20-25min, or until just about to brown on the bottom.

My Notes:

With this last batch, I used more like 6.5 C flour, I think atmospheric conditions might have some effect on the recipe.

I like more raisins-1.5-2C.

Use about, I don't know, maybe a quarter cup of dough per cookie.

The snakes should be approximately 0.75 inch in diameter, and should make a circle approximately four inches in diameter.

These cookies are a bit dry, hence the deliciousness with a cup of cold milk--so be careful not to over bake. The tops do not brown, so watch the bottoms.

My cookies took more like 30 minutes, but my oven is not particularly reliable.

If you try them, let me know what you think!

Oh, and here's a picture. I read the blog and realized that you probably have no idea what I am talking about!

Just Another Reason to Run

2008-04-09T20:35:00.002-04:00

I can't remember the last time this happened to me: I was completely misunderstood. Not misheard. More like misinterpreted. And so now I have another reason to run. As in on the treadmill, not for office.
I went out to the front of the office and invited a client who was waiting to come back into the office. Usually, I am not the one who does this--I meet them once they're in the back. So the woman says to me, "Oh, I didn't expect to see you out here!" and I graciously replied, "I thought I'd cut down on the wait." To which she replied,"Yeah, it's good to get exercise when you can, to keep an eye on your weight."
Yah.
So either she was being polite and was just going along with me, or she thought I needed to get more exercise. Because of my weight.
Anyway, as she left my office, I said, "Would you mind bringing this paper to the desk?" and she replied, "Sure, I don't mind a little exercise."
Hmm.
Well that was the funniest conversation I had today. I tell you that as I am sitting on the couch watching the Red Sox and eating Ghirardelli 60%cacao baking chips out of the bag. Yum.

Seedlings

2008-04-08T21:27:00.004-04:00

I just updated my blog to do list and I'm embarrassed to say I took one item out and added three. Not much getting done on that there list.
Sisters (and I mean that literally,) you may want to skip the next couple of paragraphs. It's about (gasp) plants. Number four sister--plants growing in my HOUSE! Look away.

Anyway, for those of you who aren't nauseated by the thought of plants growing in your house, I planted some veggie and herb seeds in one of the sunnier windows of the house. I've got chives sprouting, and wax beans, tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and broccoli. No eggplant or tomatillos or hot peppers yet. I'm going to try some spinach too, outside. But growing leafy vegetables kind of grosses me out. I always think there are going to be bugs hiding in the leaves. Must be something from childhood. But I'll try spinach, and sugar peas, and maybe some lettuce. (gross.) Oh, and I just remembered, I bought some rhubarb corms or whatever they are. Ooh, and carrots of many colors, too.

I have too many seeds. I bet I won't be able to manage the upkeep of all those plants. One year I grew popcorn and I never even harvested the corn, I was so lazy by the end of the summer. Or maybe I was having morning sickness. Whatever. I wouldn't go out in the backyard. Another year, I became afraid to enter my garden because of the creepy squash beetles that overwhelmed my summer squash. They were MEAN looking. So no squash. Oh, and I once had a standoff with a humongous praying mantis, and of course the praying mantis won. HUMONGOUS! That was the end of that year's gardening.

I'm working on some more permanent fruit plantings ideas, too--I've got some little baby peach trees coming from my godfather, and I've cleaned up the strawberry patch, and I'm going to plant some blueberry bushes, too--but there's not much sun in the yard right now. Well, there is right now, because the trees are leafless, but soon the shade will return. Someday we'll take down a few trees.

And now stuff is starting to bloom outside. I worked today ( oh, what a long, stressful day.) so I had no sunlight to photograph things, but I will soon!

What's Next?

2008-04-07T21:40:00.004-04:00

I've been making To-Do lists off and on all day today, and yesterday as well. It's because I've finally had a moment to sit still since the party is done, and I feel like for the past week I've dropped everything else to focus on birthdays and birthday parties. So now I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing. I mean, I do have some idea...like I know I have dance class tuition to pay, since I got a little email from the dance school reminding me that I didn't pay last month...emails are helpful like that, right?

The party was really fun. The kids all had a blast. There is still chocolate on the walls, if that gives you an inkling as to what the party was like.

So here are the cakes I obsessed about for the week:

That one's Princess Ariel, a Disney lady, made from a Wilton Pan. I don't like frosting this way. It kills my hands. Plus I always think the eyes look a little creepy.

And this is the fondant cake. It's the mickey mouse clubhouse. The big black sphere is Styrofoam covered in fondant. The rest is fondant and cake. The cake under the red part was cooked in a Pyrex bowl and took twice as long as expected to cook; we almost missed dance class! (the one I do pay for on time.) And the cake was not a big enough dome, so I had to add a cupcake to the top and fill the rest of the area on top with buttercream. I thought I'd get up on Saturday and the cake would have somehow deflated; I'm no architect, but this structure was definitely not sound.

And this is what we had to eat:

Well, we started, of course, with appetizers, including:

bruschetta with tomato, mozzarella and basil

my sister's taco dip/salad which is always a crowd-pleaser;

the usual veggie and fruit trays (the veggie tray was virtually untouched)

oh, and chips and dip, of course.

Then,

cake and ice cream.

then,

porterhouse steak, grilled. (it was delicious. Delicious!)

potato salad, courtesy of Mom

macaroni salad

Caesar salad (yeah, it came out of a bag, just being honest and all. But it was good.)

Prosciutto-wrapped steamed asparagus

then dessert:

cranberry-lemon coffee cake, made by another of my talented sisters, completely gone by sundown Sunday; a Williams Sonoma recipe.

lemon meringue pie, and I would post a picture but I was too tired at 1am when it was finished and looked beautiful and by the next morning it looked totally deformed, with a shrunken meringue perched on top of the lemon, which appeared to be weeping...but honestly it tasted great. no, seriously, it was good, I had a piece. What didn't I have a piece of, you know.

chocolate dipped strawberries. fantastic. But unfortunately, the source of the chocolate on the walls. And probably other places I haven't cleaned yet, too.

snickerdoodles

brownies. it's a great, simple recipe, should you be looking for a brownie recipe from scratch.

Oh, and here's one of our guests, Miss Sylvia, I'm told she's called. My husband brought her home.

She's an espresso maker. She was quite a hit at the party. With the adults, of course. Although with the way some of the kids were acting, I can't guarantee that they weren't also drinking that poison. I myself only drink coffee for the chocolate that's mixed into it.

So, back to normal life. I guess I'll have to start the drapes now.

T-minus fifteen hours and counting...

2008-04-05T00:27:00.002-04:00

Well, it's not 3am yet, but we're closing in on 1am and going strong...I've got two cakes made and decorated, I've got a lemon meringue pie made, and I have brownies in the oven. What's left to do? Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning! Dipping strawberries; making snickerdoodles, and setup. I still think it's doable. Back to business now!

2008-04-03T21:11:00.003-04:00

I spent April first in a hyper alert state because my coworker is a known prankster and I knew I was high on the list...but nothing ever happened. I spent April second working, exhausted after using so much energy not being the butt of a joke. Today, I worked with four pounds of confectioners sugar, fistfuls (no, I'm serious) of Crisco, three pounds of mini marshmallows, a microwave, and a mixer. Can you guess what I was doing?
I was making fondant. I found this great recipe about a year ago and I've had really good luck with it! It is super easy to make, although it's totally and completely messy. The site is here, if you're interested.
I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed now because I have a the kids' birthday party in a couple of days, and I'm not quite as ready as I want to be: the house is a mess, the cakes are not made, and I don't really know what's on the menu. There are about 2o adults and 10 kids coming for cake and dinner. And I've got these two birthday cakes to make: one with fondant for decoration, one with good old icing and piping.
My newest philosophy (I just came up with this) is that I should take it easy, and everything will get done. Right. I can say that now, because I'm really tired, sitting on the couch lounging and watching a Lost rerun, but tomorrow when it's 3am and I'm cleaning the dining room, I'll be sure to write a quick entry documenting my mood and state of mind...
I'm off to bed. That's part of the philosophy. Early to bed and sleep as late as you can get away with, then stay up until the work's done, and be a zombie at the party. It'll work, right?

Look't I Found

2008-03-29T22:32:00.004-04:00

I'm finally lounging on the couch wrapped in a blanket and not moving. With an emphasis on the not moving. Today I raked and raked and raked. It was sunny but cold--about 35 degrees with a stiff wind. (So it was a good thing that my neighbors weren't around--there were a few gusts that moved some of the leaves along...off of my grass and not into my wheelbarrow.)

So I made like forty trips from the front yard to the compost pile trucking leaves and really, by the end, the yard didn't look all that different. But the compost pile has experienced urban sprawl or woodland sprawl or whatever. It's big. It's out of control. And it doesn't seem to be composting anything. Another story for another time.

My favorite part of the day: finding these.

Of course, when I noticed these, I knew I should have raked in the fall.

Can you see how tall that white sheath is? The poor plants thought they were still underground in all those leaves. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the worst cases, which were six or eight inches tall and still no leaves were visible. They looked like some sort of deep sea ocean floor organisms. Icky. Kind of creepy, too.

I mean, I did rake in the fall, several times--but it snowed before we could rake a final time. I forgot I planted whatever these things are--maybe some sort of crocus. I planted a bunch of crocuses (Croci?) and daffodils and tulips and am being surprised as they pop up.

I also bought some heath, which I have yet to put into the ground. It's really pretty but we'll see--I like to garden but don't have a knack for placement. That's for tomorrow. If I can get out of bed!

Strawberries and Cream

2008-03-25T21:00:00.004-04:00

It's a good day when I can come home from work with the sun still shining AND have time to make dessert! It definitely is not a very involved dessert, but strawberries and cream is a big hit around this joint. Are strawberries in season somewhere? Because they've been of much better quality at the supermarket lately. I've got a little strawberry patch in the backyard--I planted it last year and got a few strawbs, and I'm hoping that there are more this year--but currently it is still in winter mode. The strawberry patch was part of the yard that I raked, and now I'm afraid that since I removed the leaves, I've removed the little plants' protection from the elements--we're still having nighttime temps in the twenties.

That's all for today. I'm going to go watch the REAL housewives of new york city, or some such nonsense...

Lazy Days

2008-03-24T21:57:00.003-04:00

It's Monday and it's laundry day (yes, I am obsessed with laundry) but I am not doing laundry. I am in such a lazy lazy place right now; not blogging, not laundering, not cleaning, not working, (I had the week off) and not exercising (okay, that's not something new, but it could be) not sewing. I didn't even make canoli for Easter, for the first time in 5 or 6 years. I did make the cover recipe from the most recent Bon Appetit, some lemony cupcakes with raspberry jam filling. (See, I'm even too lazy to go find the actual title of the recipe!) I'm not much for cake, but they were pretty good, except that the raspberry jam leaked to the bottom. Maybe because I doubled the recipe and that somehow threw off the density of the batter. I consider them a failure.
Hey, I did rake (a small part of) the yard this weekend. And now I can hardly move. But I don't think that's the cause of the laziness.

Things I did not enjoy these past few days:
.raking
.breaking my rake with one last pile of leaves left
.having to use a pitchfork to move the leaves, yup, because I was too lazy to look for another rake. (Yes, cleaning the garage is on the list.)
.having to do two emergency loads of laundry because of certain items of clothing needed tomorrow. Said items being of two different color groups and therefore not washable together.
.checking my work account and finding 112 letters to read. ahyuck.
.anticipating work (but just today)
.listening to yelling children during Easter Mass. (MY yelling children. Mass was curtailed.)

Things I did enjoy these past few days:
.watching the children hunt for eggs
.their belief
.the importance of magic in the life of a child
.looking at the raked part of my yard
.seeing the flowers coming up
.not working
.making the baby smile
.watching the kids make the baby smile
.planning and buying for the next round of birthdays.

It's been a nice few days. I just need a little motivation and I'll be good to go.

My Newest Plans

2008-03-18T20:52:00.002-04:00

What did I do today? Laundry. Laundry. And...wait for it if you'd like...Laundry. The house smells nice, but there are one thousand and eight loads of clean Laundry just waiting to be folded. Maybe by the Easter Bunny. I'm not all that interested in it.
Piles of clean Laundry.
Laundry.
...

Anyway, as I continue to avoid the Laundry, I've been trying to fill my time. I put together a few bookcases, filled them up, realized the next step was to clean the office (a very, very big job)so changed over the Laundry and made a few phone calls.
And then I started making a list of what I need to do before Easter--I think I'm going to try making Hot Cross Buns this year; I can't decide if I'll make them for Good Friday (old Catholic Tradition) or Easter (Old English Tradition.) Probably for Good Friday. I think I'm making canoli for Easter, which is a yearly thing. We've got to color the Easter eggs, too. One kid needs a haircut before the weekend; I've got some baskets to fill, I need some flowers as Easter day hostess gifts (I'm not the hostess, I'm giving them to the hostesses;) oh, and I need something to wear. Plus we need some kind of Easter breakfast. Then the birthdays start.

Tomorrow I'm babysitting for the day, a beautiful baby. It's great--the baby's so cute and easygoing. So I'll get nothing done because I'll play with the babe all day and then, I'll say I'm so tired from babysitting that I can't do anything but relax. Not even laundry.
Maybe I'll have enough energy to make another list.

Not Irish Soda Bread

2008-03-17T20:29:00.003-04:00

Did you know that Saint Patrick was born in the late 300's?
He was not born Irish; but became the patron saint of Ireland.
He was captured and put into slavery in his teen years.
He was a slave in Ireland, where he learned the local language.
He escaped slavery and studied in Europe, and became a priest.
He went back to Ireland to convert the Irish to Catholicism.
Legend has it that he drove the poisonous snakes from Ireland.
And also used the shamrock to teach the concept of the Holy Trinity.
Saint Patrick died on March 17th. His shroud was made by Saint Brigid.

Uh, yeah, and could I actually not publish a blog entry in green about Irish Soda Bread today? Just about every other blog I've read today has been about the aforementioned bread. But I'm going to write about it anyway. Kind of. My Irish bread has no soda in it. It's so delicious--you should try it. That is, if it's your kind of bread. There are definitely distinct types of Irish bread--there's the whole caraway seed thing, the soda thing, the fruit or no fruit thing.
Me, I pick the no seeds, no soda option. Plus or minus fruit. And I like a more spongy texture, rather than a scone-like texture. But maybe that's the soda thing--I'm still no good about cooking chemistry.
And heeere it is:

And here it is ten minutes after it was served:

Yum. In the interest of full disclosure, I ate that piece when everyone went upstairs to get ready for bed.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Spring Painting

2008-03-13T20:05:00.005-04:00

Today I realized that it's actually March and Spring really is coming, along with Saint Patrick's Day, Easter, and about a million birthdays. And a christening. And Spring Cleaning. I realized this because the daffodils are finally pushing through the frozen soil; finally. So today I started organizing for some heavy cleaning (organizing for it, not doing it--there are rooms in the house in which the floor is only visible in less-than-square-foot patches. Rooms.)

And I decorated for Easter, just a few things. Today I bought some mossy bunnies that looked cute in the store, but now I can't decide if they're cute or creepy. I'm leaning toward creepy, but I like them anyway. Somehow they remind me of aliens, maybe because they remind me of teletubbies.

And then, we decided to paint birdhouses. Just me and four kids under seven.

What. A. Mess.

The littlest one got mad and started swinging a paintbrush dripping in green paint. Twice. Which accounts for the spatter on the walls, but I'm not sure how the purple got tracked across the kitchen. Or who left the orange fingerprints on the pantry door. Or why there's paint under the kitchen table.

Seriously, I was a CSI, looking at the spatter on the wall and debating whether or not to compare shoe treads to the paint tracks and maybe fingerprinting the guilty looking ones. I didn't go as far as oral DNA swabs but I did have to wash a few mouths and faces. I think one of them was eating paint. Maybe two of them.

But the kids had fun and the houses look great. So we packed up the paints and brushes and newspaper and everyone went home. Phew. But not before they planned more painting (the finishing touches and decorations, of course) for tomorrow!

Attempted Sewing

2008-03-10T21:22:00.000-04:00

I attempted a sewing project recently, from Bend-the-Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol. I haven't sewn by a pattern in years, since junior high school. I am not a seamstress. I am not a perfectionist. (Notice the fabric is unironed.) Granted, there were no seams to be hemmed up, the cuffs are just rolled, no buttons or pleats or even much to cut. But the end result turned out pretty well, and I learned how to sew a bias tape edging.
And the recipient liked her new little sweatery thing.

The other child meant to receive one decided she didn't like the style, so number two never got sewn. I think I'm going to try some beach bags next--if I start now, I'll probably be done by August.

Making Lemons Into Lemonade

2008-03-07T15:32:00.003-05:00

Such a positive title...but I mean it literally, I made lemonade, under duress, really, as the kids in the house pressured me to use our little (I do mean Little) Meyer lemons from our little Meyer lemon tree. I also used six store-bought lemons because, well, obviously, five dime- to half-dollar-size lemons do not produce much juice. My lemons actually were really really juicy. I don't know why that made me proud, but it did. Mmhmm, you can see I have become a bit obsessive about my citrus trees.

Well. So anyway, here's the recipe. It again is from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book, 12th edition. I swear, I have maybe 40 other cookbooks, and I do use them, but this one has such simple recipes, and frankly, I wasn't in the mood to cook, so I went with simple. And maybe I just like everything I make (but I really don't) but this was really good! And easy. With no preservatives or other junk.

Lemonade or Limeade Base:

Prep:20 min

Cool: 20 min

Chill: up to three days

Makes approx eight eight-ounce servings.

2.5 C H2O

1.25 C sugar

0.5 tsp finely shredded peel (I did not use this because I don't like the taste)

1.25 C lemon or lime juice (approx 7-8 lemons)

ice cubes

(see how simple?)

This makes a base, to be used mixed with water for the juice.

For the base, in a medium saucepan, heat and stir H2O and sugar over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat. Cool for 20 min.

Add citrus peel and juice to sugar mixture.

Pour into a jar; cover and chill for up to three days.

For each glass of lemonade, combine equal parts base and H2O in ice-filled glasses. Stir.

I imagine this would be good with added raspberries or strawberries. And I've already had requests for lemon snow cones. I bet it would be a good base for a mixed drink, too. (And if my day keeps up this way, I'll be trying that hypothesis.)

Just Work

2008-03-04T22:13:00.003-05:00

Pretty much just work today. No embarrassing skirt episodes (I pretty much wear pants all the time these days, for obvious reasons, if you've read the back entries.) and nothing really out of the ordinary.
I once again pulled out the silk drapes and silk fabric to start the Living Room Drape Project but quickly put them down. (Now there's a pile of silk on the living room couch.) Glanced at the kitchen table and thought, "Gee, I should paint the second coat." Looked at the dining room table on top of which sits a sewing machine, random fabrics, a box of sewing notions, boxes of papers (not mine), and, well, actually there're a lot of scattered papers; I have no idea what they are for as they are my husband's, and I generally avoid getting involved in any of his paperwork. Also noted random papers floating around under the table. On several of the chairs. Hmm. Saw that the rug needed vacuuming.
Mmhmm, didn't pick up any of those options; nope, work was enough. I did set up my little seed growing area. I mean, I set up the table it will be on. No seed planting yet-but I think it's about time. I never seem to time my seedlings right, so I end up with these spindly little plants that have to do all kinds of catch-up growth once they move outside. Maybe this year will be better.

Granny Cake Recipe

2008-03-04T20:49:00.002-05:00

Here's the recipe for my new favorite cake, Granny Cake.
Granny Cake from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook 12th edition:
oven: 325
prep: 20 min
bake: 70 min
cool: 2 hrs

3 C flour
2 C sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp ground cloves
0.75 C butter, softened
2 C mashed ripe bananas (about 6)
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
+/- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
+/- powdered sugar

Grease and flour a 10-inch fluted tube pan; set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and cloves. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 sec. Add bananas, undrained pineapple, eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined. Add flour mixture. Beat on low speed until combined. Beat on medium speed 1 min. (Fold in pecans if desired.)
Spread in prepared pan.
Bake in a 325 oven for 70-75 min or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 min.
Remove cake from pan.
Cool thoroughly on wire rack.
If desired, sift powdered sugar over cooled cake just before serving.
It's so good! Enjoy.

Granny Cake

2008-03-02T20:37:00.003-05:00

I tried the Granny Cake recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook today. I was looking for something to bake to use up my overly ripe banana supply, but I'm sick of banana bread. I've never heard of Granny Cake before; apparently it's also called Hummingbird Cake.

Granny Cake is a simple cake with 6 bananas and just a little bit of crushed pineapple added, spiced with cloves and nutmeg. It actually was a success. Usually I don't like the cakes I bake, even if others do; I don't really like cake (cookies, pie, a different story.) But it was basically a very moist banana bread (not much pineapple taste, surprisingly) with a nice spicy aftertaste. I recommend it , especially for a brunch or a coffee cake. I think a glaze would also be nice on it, maybe with a bit of pineapple flavoring. Let me know if you would like the recipe! It's probably on line somewhere, but in fact I am just too lazy to look. Post prandial coma...

It's Not My Day

2008-03-01T17:14:00.005-05:00

Today is not my day...to cook. I was thinking about making a granny cake today, but when I saw what my husband came home with after work today:

I no longer had any impetus to cook!

Robiola 3-latte cheese, cecchinese olive tapenade, marinated mushrooms, stuffed cherry peppers, nodini Liuzzi (mozzarella) and bread. And rumor has it there's a lasagna (with fresh pasta) in the oven!
Yum. Happy Saturday!

Happy Leap Day

2008-02-29T21:45:00.004-05:00

Happy Leap Day!

Today is NOT Sadie Hawkins Day; I always thought it was. Sadie Hawkins Day is some day in November. The 19th, maybe? From what I've read, I think the two days are confused because Sadie Hawkins Day is a day when a woman can ask a man out to a dance or a date, and Leap Day is a day that a woman can ask a man to marry her (and the man can't say no without paying a fine.)

Sadie Hawkins Day originated in the 1930's; Leap Day has been around since at least 40 BC, but the tradition about asking for marriage may have started somewhere in Europe in a bit more modern times. Lesson of the day, whatever. All I know is that it makes February a day longer, which I don't care for. But March is coming and that means spring, even if the forecast is eight inches of snow...

In other news, I picked five lemons today, off of my little Meyer lemon tree. Now it looks so naked, poor little thing. And now I'm expected to make lemonade out of the tiny little lemons; I imagine I'll only be able to make a jiggerful and everyone will get one sip.

I definitely did not understand the life/fruit cycle of the lemon tree. We had flowers in the spring, green lemons in the summer, and the lemons just started turning yellow about a month and a half ago. I suppose that makes sense, but being a gardener in zone 6, I am used to a much shorter growing cycle--fruits and vegetables blossoming and maturing in a few months.

Enjoy the extra day!

PS: Sorry about the creepy ghost in the corner of the picture. I don't know what that is. Ick.

Crudaiola

2008-02-28T16:49:00.006-05:00

This is one of my favorites. It's a recipe I found in Bon Apetit several years ago, and I don't remember any more details than that. It's really summery and fresh and EASY. The ingredients and preparation are simple and the outcome is, well, perfect.

Taglierini with Fresh Tomato and Basil Sauce

(Crudaiola=Raw, or maybe raw sauce, or raw ingredients...

I don't know, I don't speak Italian.)

Ingredients:

1.75 lb plum tomatoes, chopped

1 C basil, coarsely chopped

0.5 C pine nuts, toasted

0.5 C olive oil

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped (I use 3, and put them through the garlic press)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 lb taglierini or linguini (I often use linguini fini)

0.5 C grated parmesan

Combine the first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to blend. Cover and refrigerate at least thirty minutes, up to three hours.

Cook pasta. Drain, reserving some of the pasta cooking water. Return the pasta to the pot.

Add your tomato-basil sauce to the pasta in the pot.

Toss the sauce and pasta over medium-high heat until heated through, and the sauce coats the pasta thickly, adding enough reserved pasta cooking water (by half-cupfuls) to moisten, about four minutes.

Add 0.5 C parmesan cheese and toss to blend.

Season with salt and pepper.

Prep time: pretty quick. Serves: about six.

No pictures of the finished project--off to an annoying quarterly meeting right after dinner and budgeted my time poorly!

Mr.P

2008-02-27T23:25:00.002-05:00

Not sure why I stay up so late. Now I'm playing with Mr. P. Check it out for yourself at http://www.cs.utk.edu/~ffowler/javahtml/potato/Potato.html.

Puppy Love

2008-02-27T21:34:00.005-05:00

Just look at this sleepy little face! This is the newest member of my (extended) family, isn't he beautiful? He's my sister's new puppy, does that make him my nephew? (I'm trying to somehow claim some ownership.) We really aren't quite ready for a dog at my house although the ranks are starting to riot--so for now, we'll just play with this little guy. He's a rhodesian ridgeback, so he won't be little for long! (The other ridgeback in the family is gigantic.)

Puppies are so much fun. I want one.

Hey, it's true, the Red Sox have their first grapefruit league game the 29th against the Twins. Yay! Here comes spring!

This Week's New Try

2008-02-24T21:34:00.006-05:00

Obviously not my healthiest recipe.

But so delicious!

I made Baked Alaska today. I've wanted to for a while. It was great, and easy. Unfortunately, it has to be cooked just before it is served, and the meringue has to be whipped up, too, so it needs an audience with a bit of patience.

Baked Alaska has many variations. The dessert was more popular in the past; I couldn't find it in any of my modern general or dessert cookbooks. It's made up of three basic parts: a cake base, ice cream on top, all covered with meringue, then popped in the oven at a high temp to brown the meringue without melting the ice cream. It can be made as individual desserts or a big dessert to be sliced.
I was craving chocolate, so I made the base a big brownie, covered it with vanilla ice cream which I molded in a bowl, then covered with a sugary meringue. If I did it again, I would chill the ice cream right on the brownie. I used a springform pan I lined with tin foil, which worked very well. Man, it was good. A success!

Discrimination; What's Your Station?

2008-02-23T21:50:00.008-05:00

What do you say when someone is talking to your husband about babysitting and then (jokingly, although said someone did not know that I was (pardon me, you were) listening when he said it,) lists you as one of the children who need watching? Hmmm. Not funny.

Not even really that funny when it is the other way around, and the husband is considered as one of the wife's kids. Which is much more the common form of the "joke", for lack of a better term. Right? Hmm. Not actually anger-inspiring, but certainly annoying to me. Likely because this is one in a long line of similar comments from someone.

I grew up in a family where there were no gender restrictions; as a girl I played with Tonka trucks, climbed trees, made forts, baked, played with dolls, basically did whatever interested me. (Aside: which is probably why I am scared of manicures and pedicures.) I went to a Women's College and graduated thinking (knowing) I was as smart as anyone else. I went to graduate school and laughed the first time I came across gender discrimination, because I thought it was a joke, it was so flagrant; and once I realized that it wasn't a joke and it kept happening, I learned ways to work around it (or bring attention to it, on occasion,) and still get and do what I wanted. I went to work and got tangled in the old boy's network and still complain to whomever will listen, but I know how to get my work done and be successful. And every chance I get (and I get many,) I teach girls about equality, self-respect, and self-confidence.

So I'm a little surprised that this comment caught me, but I generally don't expect to deal with stuff like this among friends and family. Just business, usually, you know? Or maybe I'm just getting sensitive. Or I'm getting spoiled. I really am not sure. I dealt with the comment with a good natured joking reply of some sort (people laughed, anyway) and moved on.

So really, what do you do when you face discrimination? And do you react differently depending on who else is around you? I want answers!

Fun Management

2008-02-22T17:55:00.004-05:00

These paints always bring me back to my childhood.
.

.
I loved the little paint pots, and rinsing out the colors that got mixed up, and the glass of water changing colors with each dip of the brush. Remember?
.

.
Today my crafting mainly involved managerial duties. I oversaw watercolor painting and hand-stitching. I love to watch kids create. I was a bit concerned about the sharp pins aspect of the sewing project, but there was only one poke, and no tears. And no spills!
I'm still in a rut as far as getting motivated to finish one of the many projects I've started, so this made me feel like I was at least somehow involved in the creativity.
.

.
Even if I was the rule-setter and enforcer more than anything else.
.
At least my gardening dreams have subsided--the snow is dropping on us at a rate of approximately an inch and hour, if you believe the forecaster (I know, right?) But that's what it looks like. So now I can convince myself it's winter still and maybe I'll finish some of my winter projects. Or not, if you believe the forecaster.

Hot Chocolate and Not Doing

2008-02-20T20:50:00.005-05:00

And this is pretty much the only reason I am okay with winter not being over yet. When I came home from work today (not a bad day, actually,) I was greeted with a little cup of hot chocolate, and it was definitely a high point of the day. So yummy. I was offered marshmallows, whipped cream, and marshmallow fluff, but I turned them all down for the pure stuff. A good decision, I think, because if I had accepted one of the options, I'm sure I would have ended up sharing. Instead, I had the little cup to myself.

And so I sat for a few minutes, and drank my chocolate, and read some of the blogs on my favorites list (I've got to update my blog crawl...) and looked at all of the things people are creating: sewing, knitting, painting, sketching, baking and cooking, designing...come on, I thought I made good use of my time, but I've got nothing on these people! I mean, this blog was my idea to get me creating things, and photographing things, and writing things, but I am just not doing very much! At this point, I am blaming my lack of creativity on the most recent illness to strike my family, and my subsequent sleep-free nights, but that all ended three or four days ago; work's not actually that busy, so I can't blame that (although I have had to work some recent weekends,) and I'm starting to think that maybe I'm reading too many other blogs...

So I have nothing to show for the past two weeks, aside from the aforementioned fuzzy-toothed pasta, a failure I should really put behind me; I've got a half-finished litle sweatshirty thing I was working on, a less-than-half-finished slightly bigger sweatshirty thing (I cut out the fabric, okay?) a half-painted kitchen table, two half-painted chairs (uh-huh, we're using them anyway,) hmm, what else--a bunch of fabric for some tote bags. A half-scraped wall I'm planning to repaint. Packets of seeds to plant. I think I'll stop here, as I'm beginning to be embarrassed.

Yup, that's what I'm doing. Not doing. I've got to stop not doing so much!

Cherry Pie and Rice

2008-02-18T21:49:00.002-05:00

I made a cherry pie today. Yum! It took approximately twenty minutes to put together (and then an hour to cook.) It's totally non-gourmet, full of canned cherries, and was just great. The crust, of course, is from scratch.
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I've given up eating between meals. This is supposed to make me have a healthier diet, but instead, since I'm anticipating being hungry later, at meals I am totally engorging myself. Whether it's Valentine's cookies or cherry pie, I'm practically doubling up to make sure I stay full.
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So when I read about a website that allows you to donate rice by taking a vocabulary test, I was again reminded of (and embarrassed by my ability to forget) the huge, huge difference between my privileged life and the lives of certain others.
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Www.freerice.com is a website that donates rice to be distributed to those in need by the United Nations World Food Program. Anyone can be a part: you simply go to the site and start to take the vocabulary test. For every word you get correct, twenty grains of rice are donated. It's quick and fun and you learn something. I learned that my vocabulary has become very limited, and that nudibranch means sea slug. Who knew?

Check it out.

Supper time

2008-02-16T21:41:00.012-05:00

Hmm, what to talk about today....

Does that sound like I can't decide which of the marvelous and exciting things that I did today I should talk about? Oh ho ho, don't be misled. Actually, I've done very little and have nothing to show for the time that's passed. So here's what I wanted to be able to say today:

Oh, today was lovely--I spent the afternoon making pasta and French bread while my husband made sauce. It was delicious, we had it with a California table wine, even the kids ate it (the food, not the wine...) and for dessert, some yummy raspberry and chocolate chunk scones.

And here's the real blog entry:

Oh, today was pretty good--I actually had time to cook this afternoon. Initially I was going to make raspberry and chocolate chunk scones, but then I realized that the dried raspberries I bought contained an allergen we can't eat in my house, so out the window went that idea.

I decided to make some pasta, and in an effort to be healthy, I used organic whole wheat flour. I also pulled out the old bread machine and started up some French bread (also with the whole wheat.) My husband made the sauce, and then we all sat down to dinner.

Cue the sound of a record on a record player scratching and slowing way down...

YEEEEEEEEUCK! Oh dear lord, the pasta was DISSS-gusting. My husband ate it. (He eats everything.) One of the kids ate it. (Just recovered from a nasty gastro and lost about 5 pounds; so this week will eat anything, in large amounts.)

But the rest of us thought it was bogus. Are you familiar with the feeling of your teeth becoming furry? Not a good feeling. The noodles definitely caused that feeling. Eww. I can't think of another way to put it--the taste was okay, but the texture, not appropriate for food. The French bread, pretty tasty, actually. But I think bread made in my bread machine is always a little bit chewy; probably a bit over-kneaded. No chance to really rest and rise.

My husband's sauce was delightful. Thank goodness he also cooked up some sausage; it helped fill my belly! As I mentioned, dessert was a bust, but luckily there were left-over valentine's cookies...(and no, I didn't have four. I had five.)

Flower Girl

2008-02-14T18:12:00.005-05:00

Why do I like Valentine's Day? Because it marks halfway through February, which had always been my least favorite month, until, of course, my eldest niece was born. And my youngest nephew. So now it's bearable, at least.

Instead of cleaning, I perused the flower catalogs again today, and there is a ton of great stuff out there! In Breck's, I love the Anneke Calla Lilies and the Little Blue Wonder Sea Holly. From Spring Hill Nurseries, where I've bought before and had pretty good results, I'd like to try growing the Early Hybrid Kniphofia; they're so cool! and the maybe some helleborus. The Dragon's blood sedum is really crazy looking, too. This year I've become partial to Weigela; I'm waffling between that and the Ferdy Hedge Rose. I don't know.

I often have great ideas and no time (or energy) to actually follow through. If I buy the plants through the mail, though, I feel guilty about letting them die in the driveway in their little pots, so I usually do get around to planting them. My other problem, which I'm hoping will go away with a little more experience, is that I can't always picture: a) what the planting will look like as it matures and b) what "garden look" I'm actually aiming for when I start combining different plants. And the written descriptions of the plants don't always fully explain how the plant will look in my yard. But I guess that's part of the fun.

That's it for my ramblings on plants. My sisters will both be vomiting if they read this entry; they hate talking about gardening! One actually has a diagnosable plant phobia, I think: she gets grossed out around houseplants. Really. She doesn't like any plant life growing in the house--it's even worse if it's edible, like herbs or something. Well. Just a quick aside.

The weekend's coming! I'm hoping to do some sewing; I'm working on a project from Bend the Rules Sewing, by Amy Karol. Not too much else planned at this point, but I'm sure I'll run out of time anyway!

Spring dreaming

2008-02-13T22:10:00.005-05:00

Days like today make me think about my garden. Not that I spent any time outside in the daylight hours; but something about the drenching rain beating on the flat roof of my office, and the grayness of the day, and the relative warmth (40+ degrees, woohoo!) makes me think spring is coming. Experience tells me otherwise: it's only february, after all, and there are many winter days before we have any true spring weather. I know that, but I just can't help thinking about planting things, and seeing all my plants come back to life.
This winter I tried my hand at starting clippings-I used my Thanksgiving cactus to start a number of Christmas gifts. The plant was my grandmother's; she passed away 10 years ago; and this plant has survived my moving it out of state, moving back into state, moving across town, and generally, all kinds of neglect. But it blooms twice a year anyway and reminds me of my grandmother and looks pretty happy most of the time. So I was very happy to have success in starting my little clippings: all 26 survived (well, they survived my house...I can't speak to what's happened to them at the homes of my cousins and sisters and aunts and uncles and nieces etc...)
But that kind of planting just isn't the same as starting bulbs or seeds or even planting bushes and trees. Maybe it's the smell of the soil and spring blossoming in general, or the fresh air, or the physical labor, but it's more fun outside. I've been greedily searching the garden catalogs for the perfect plant. I don't actually have a particular place in the yard to fill but I definitely have some ideas! More to come on my spring planting plans...

Fatigue

2008-02-11T20:58:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how tired I am? I haven't really had a normal night of sleep in, oh, eight or nine nights. How tired am I? I'm so tired, I:

Backed out of the garage without buckling the carseat;

Blew-dry my hair with some new crazy flip on the bottom, but only on one side;

Just realized today that valentine's day is this week;

Did laundry this week but now have approximately 12 loads of unfolded laundry (no, I don't usually have this much laundry each week. stomach bug in my house. need I say more?)

Speaking of laundry, instead of spraying the spot on my olive green pants with spray-and-wash (a prewash spray), I sprayed it with clorox clean-up (bleach tile/kitchen cleaner). Turns out that the spot came out...

Fell asleep every time I sat on the couch

Bought a really funny but seriously inappropriate card for a friend (definitely can't send it)

Am going to bed early now!

On the Boards

2008-02-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

I've finished up the bulletin boards; their recipients are pleased. I like 'em, too. I should have lined the light pink one, but it'll be covered with photos and notes and cards soon, so I don't think I'll change it. That and the lazy thing.

I made the blue and yellow one a few years ago, and I sewed the buttons and ribbon to the fabric before I attached the fabric to the board. Again, that was a few years ago, pre-children, when I had time. And wasn't so lazy.

To make the newer boards, I stapled the fabric to the back of the corkboard, then stapled the ribbons to the back edge of the corkboard, also. I glued the buttons to the ribbon, and later glued the ribbon intersections (under each button) to the fabric to make some places to set cards/photos/etc.

I expect the stapled/glued corkboards won't hold up as well as the sewn one--that'll be evident the first time someone tries to use the board as a ladder to reach, you know, the ceiling, of course.

That's it. An extreme lack of sleep is preventing me from thinking clearly; you know that feeling of seeing everything through a haze? I'm beyond that to the loss of emotion state: I am now an automaton. Time for sleep!

Bottoms Up

2008-02-05T20:58:00.000-05:00

Oh yes. I outdid myself this time. Let's let the lead-in be that I basically replicated one of my favorite funny memories, except in the original, the star was a relatively famous but not very likeable Spanish professor, and in the remake, I'm in the lead role. Now, I like to think I've reached an age at which I generally no longer find humor in other people's embarrassment. Generally. Not that this actually has anything to do with the remake, but it plays into the original. Mostly nowadays I am a helpful person, with the occasional "excuse me sir, you dropped your credit card," or "sure, I'll direct you to the place you're trying to find," or "of course, let me help you finish up so you can get home a little earlier"...but I have to say, I laughed all day at the remake.

Anyway, the original is just a short story: ditzy but well-published Spanish prof arrives to class late after taking the subway in the rain. Now, she's been mean to the non-native speakers all semester, belittling American culture in off-handed comments to the class all along. (Can you tell this is me trying to justify something?)

Today she comes in and starts writing on the board without taking off her trench coat because she's late; so she starts writing and talking about some literary topic--it was actually a really interesting class, she's famous for a reason, I guess. She's speaking in Spanish, so I'm concentrating pretty hard...she takes off the trench coat and throws it over a chair and keeps writing and talking. About halfway through the class, I look up from my notes and I realize that the entire back of her skirt is tucked into the waistband of her nylons. Those icky tan control-top-type nylons. And for the rest of the period, I can't even look up, I'm trying so hard not to laugh; except I do look up, and she is feeling a draft or a breeze or something on the back of her....well, her backside, and waving her hand around back there, but not quite figuring out where the breeze is coming from; and occasionally she must feel like her skirt is a bit askew and she straightens it out a bit (but doesn't do any untucking,) and I'm trying to sneak sidelong glances at the other girls (no boys in this class, if there were, I might have acted more...helpfully) to see if they are reacting--and they all have their heads down too!
Finally I just get up and leave the little classroom early, because I really am on the verge of hysteria and I have to get out of there because I'm starting to shake and soon she's going to ask me if I'm okay in Spanish and then I'll have to answer her with tears rolling down my face and my voice wobbling, and then when she figures out that her bum was hanging out of her skirt all period, she'll know I knew, and kaplooey, failure of Spanish Literature 205 or whatever it was.

Well, in today's remake, I head back from lunch after a quick stop in the ladies' room; I did notice that my skirt seemed quite puffy posteriorly, and I checked but it didn't seem out of place (I am sensitive to the skirt stuff because of the above story) so I went about my business, literally--and I'm sure I passed some co-workers in the hall. But it wasn't until I was talking to a nice grandmotherly type (client, not colleague,) when she interupted me and said, "your skirt's all wrapped up, and I'm sure you don't want go around with your bum hanging out!" So I rapidly rearranged things, (I hadn't even felt a draft or a breeze!) laughed hysterically for about ten minutes (rather inappropriately, I must add) and then tried to get back to work. Every once in a while I would erupt in hysterical laughter, prompting odd looks and questions about what I was up to from colleagues--even now I can't write this without laughing. Man, it's a good thing this remake wasn't set in high school--can you imagine the fallout? Probably not that cool to be well-known but not popular.

And that's what I get for dressing up. Thank you, helpful grandmotherly lady! I think I'll wear pants tomorrow.

Weekend Recovery

2008-02-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

It was a good weekend, all things considered. One of those weekends when you accomplish alot but you feel like you get a ton of rest, too. Unfortunately there is a virus attacking us one by one, so I am alternately caring for the sickies and dreading my turn as one. But aside from that, and from the fact that the Sunday paper wasn't delivered, oh, and that we had to miss our superbowl party due to illness, thereby also missing chili, meatballs, italian subs, nachos, etc, (it's just in my nature to complain, these things were not big deals;) ah, run-on sentences, I do truly think in them; it was a nice weekend.

Here's what I did this weekend:

pizza night with the extended family;
day trip to Providence;
solo trip to the store (a treat!) to pick up all sorts of fabrics and notions for some project ideas;
started the corkboard on my to-do list
watched a couple of Disney movies
attended a bonfire
watched the superbowl

Here's what I cooked this weekend:

grilled cheese sandwiches with grape jelly
Julia Child's french onion soup (delish)
cranberry-maple pudding cake (a Bon Appetit magazine recipe from the 1/08 issue)
bittersweet chocolate pudding pie with creme fraiche topping (also from Bon Appetit, 1/08 issue) (I recommend it!)

Here's what I learned/relearned this weekend:

cleaning the throw-up bowl is gross. (but necessary, obviously)
Christmas trees burn really, really fast and hot. very scarily.
Julia Child rocks.
Chocolate pudding can be sophisticated.
People in the city seem to be in better shape than people in the suburbs.
City supermarkets don't always have a better selection than suburban ones.
I really do still not like football.
I am addicted to chocolate (the taste? the caffeine?)
Cornmeal is a rustic taste.
I am not reading enough.
Years and years after a funny event happens, sisters can still laugh as hard as the first time when one of them brings it up.
I think I may be addicted to using Lysol spray (appropriately, of course.)
Infant development is amazing.

Sandwiched In

2008-02-01T14:33:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things to eat is a good sandwich. I think this may be something I inherited from my father, an excellent sandwich maker. He can turn out those kinds of sandwiches that are just loaded with good things and are presented with panache--you know, an olive on a toothpick, pickles on the side, chips, what have you. So I have a sandwich thing; never really liked hot lunch.

Today was a great sandwich day. It's cold and rainy and dark, and lunch, comprised of my latest favorite, was in the warm, bright kitchen.

This is my latest favorite:

cucumber, sliced thinly; tomato, sliced very thinly; maple brown sugar ham (yup, sliced thinly) and boursin cheese on lavash bread. Very important also is the beverage, which in this case (as usual,) is iced mocha. The cookies, well, they should be for desert, but I had four just like them for breakfast, so maybe I'll hold off. Maybe.

Now and Then

2008-01-31T14:21:00.000-05:00

Things kids have today that I didn't:

Permission to call adults by their first names

Booster seats (car seats, for that matter)

Bicycle helmets

Routine Influenza Vaccine

Risky internet sites

iPods

Terror drills at school

Chicken Pox Shots

College savings accounts

Wii

Mainstream rap

American Girl dolls

5 food groups

Parents who have to explain why their teen idols are pregnant

An understanding of salary, and who makes what; an awareness of cost/price

The greenhouse effect

Razor scooters

Things I had that kids today don't:

oral Polio vaccine

atari

walkman

chicken pox

CBs

unscheduled time after school

commodore 64

smallpox vaccine (well, not me, but right before me)

prescription dimetapp

Schoolhouse rock on Saturday morning

smurfs

no-name sneakers

Jordache jeans

eight track player

cassette player/boom box

abilitiy to record music off the radio

Creature double feature on Saturday afternoons

Spanning the generations:

Mr. Potato Head

Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine

Twinkies

Stranger Danger

Children's music albums

Fear of the elementary school principal

Swingsets

Snow days

School bus seat hierarchy

Bullies

Trick or treating

Ear infections

Strawberry shortcake and friends

Barbie et al.

Chuck Taylors

Mickey Mouse

Summer vacation

Kickball games

Just a quick off-the-cuff list, no deep hidden meanings, just me stretching my memory. Feel free to add some of your own!

Beaded

2008-01-30T22:43:00.000-05:00

Nothing but work for the past few days, so no new creations and no exciting stories. All windows intact. I've been entertaining myself by reading some blogsites I stumbled upon, postsecret and passiveagressivenotes.com.

Still catching up with my camera, these are some of the bracelets I made as Christmas presents: "cousins bracelets" for all of the girls, made up of all of the cousins' birthstones, including turqoise, fresh water pearls, and Swarovski crystals for the rest (I couldn't afford diamonds...) with little silver toggles. The girls seemed to like them; they are pretty sparkly, after all. I made some bracelets for adults, with fresh water pearls and garnets, and fresh water pearls and pink Swarovski crystals. I like the results.

I find that making beaded jewelry is therapeutic, definitely calming. I always lose track of time when I work with beads. I think a lot of crafts are like that, probably why crafting is so popular.

Mantel Accomplished.

2008-01-28T14:24:00.000-05:00

The mantel is finished, the mantel is finished!

This surprises me: usually my painting jobs take at least twice as long as I plan for. Or longer. Generally it depends on whether or not I lose interest and stop in the middle of the painting to start some other more interesting thing. (Generally not painting.)

I like it. I'm a little surprised at how different it actually looks; after all, there was only a small amount of the maroon paint, really. It's a little...bland? Cold? There isn't much contrast there. So now I have to go buy some accessories for the mantel. Such a pity, to have to go shopping.

But I'm happy with it, and even more importantly, I'm done with it. So on to the next project, and I can't decide if I will start sewing drapes or repaint the kitchen table and chairs. Both seem like they will take a long time, and the kitchen table thing seems like it will negatively impact our lives--plus, it's too cold to strip/sand outside, and I'm not feeling that amenable to cleaning up after making that kind of a mess. We'll see.

And here is some broken glass. Not just any broken glass; this is car rear window broken glass. Not actually a big deal to me, but for some reason it was a major crisis for some of the younger members of the family. Yesterday, stopped and waiting to turn onto the highway from the gas station, car loaded with the whole family, there was a very loud POP! and, looking in the rear view mirror, I saw a very different looking rear window; glitter, with a ragged hole in the middle. So out I pop, to see what piece of ice must have fallen through the window, but nothing had fallen, and luckily for me, there was also no sniper (pardon my paranoia, I blame it on my upbringing,) so off I drove to home, with one shrieking child claiming emotional distress. Lots of drama. Typical, I suppose, for the ages involved. And today it was replaced, just like that, insurance not a problem. It seemed so unusual to not have to jump through hoops to get the car fixed! Very nice.

And here is some more glass. Just for fun. Playing around with the camera. Kind of looks like something organic. No drama here!