~Dy
If you don't mind the construction dust, come on in. The coffee's hot, the food's good, and the door is open...
Sunday, July 20
Let them eat cake!
~Dy
Wednesday, July 9
Food Storage
Moving on, might as well round out this post with all the other stuff I find and forget.
Track My Food Storage - they have both a basic free option (max 25 lines, no analysis, but still handy), and a premium paid option (includes a number of other features)
There's a post here, at Survival Monkey (I love some of the names I've run across today - this one made me think of Ernie), with another spreadsheet calculator. I haven't played with it yet, but if I post it now, I can find it again when I have time. I'll post back on how it compares.
Of course, the good old LDS, perhaps one of the few groups of people left who intentionally plan not to have to look to the gov't if things get bad. Yay, you guys!! And while we're at it, thank you we appreciate the wealth of knowledge that's available due to your diligence.
Walton Feed also has a page that offers a great general overview for planning, including reasons to plan - ranging from long-term-trouble, to serious injury, and even the climatalogical hey-here-comes-another-one situations. (I love my dark, cricket-filled basement, I really, truly do.)
Hey, while we're on a roll, and in the hope of keeping it all in one place, want to share your favorite Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy link? (That just sounds much more fun that "emergency preparedness", doesn't it? And it also point out, since you can't see me, that my tongue is still firmly planted in my cheek. We just can't take ourselves too seriously around here, you know.)
Ok, I'm off to finish watching Becket with Zorak. (Does anybody else suspect that Richard Burton is Bill Murray's father? I know, it sounds odd. But watch the movie and tell me you don't see a resemblance...)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Can't Find it - Can you Help?
And now, *sigh* I can't find it. I would tell you how many Google terms I've used to try to locate it, but that would be embarrassing. Have you seen it?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Thursday, July 3
It's OK, Y'all can laugh
Zorak was a doll about the whole thing. I called and explained that the fridge had exploded in my hands. He offered to track down the part and take care of it so that I wouldn't lose much steam on my pre-company freak-out train. He's so good to me. He called back in a bit to let me know nobody in town has one in stock, but he did find it with a distributor and it would be $50 for the glass. Shipping is anywhere from $9 (for three week delivery) to $27 (for next day delivery - which would still be no sooner than Monday, what with the holiday weekend).
Then came the redemption-idea. Hey, can't we call a glass company? Storm doors have to use tempered glass, don't they? (Yes, I've just cost us almost $80, but if I can find some way to cost us less, then that counts in the redemption category, right? Or is this like saving a dollar on something you wouldn't buy anyway, but you do because you had a coupon? Eek.) Anyway, Zorak called around and found a place that would cut us a piece of laminated glass (think "windshield glass" - same stuff) for about $30. And no shipping, since he could pick it up on the way home. Yay.
So, in the end, we have groceries *and* a place to set them. (We were going to just put plywood over the hole until the glass showed up, so it would've been all good, regardless.) Our company came, ate, and just left. The kids were a wee bit excitable, but very polite and welcoming. We had a lovely visit, and good fellowship.
One of our guests has diabetes, so we tried to offer something he would enjoy that wouldn't trip him up. We made mashed cauliflower. Wow, that was tasty! (And I don't even care for cauliflower.) Once our guest realized the white stuff wasn't potatoes, he tried it and was pleasantly surprised. Yippee. I love it when food makes people feel comfortable and welcome.
And now, it's late. The three smallest turned into chalk outlines early on in the evening, and the older two are just now dozing off. I'm going to go watch Zorak play with the Rubik's Cube. Yep, the fun never stops around here. We're just crazy that way!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Friday, May 23
Score!
1. Make cupcakes.
2. Make white icing (powdered sugar, lard, butter flavoring, and a titch of salt). Make it a little thin, with just a bit of meringue powder. This way, it will go on the cupcakes easily, self-level to a smooth, uniform surface, then harden in place. Voila!
3. Use red icing, and a small, round tip to pipe on the stitching - two half-circle lines opposite one another for the seams, like looking at the top of a baseball. Then pipe a series of short "stitches" going across the red half-circles.
4. For a real thrill -- complete with the kind of leaping up and down and spontaneous leg-hugging you get only from excited four-year-olds -- individualize the cupcakes with the kids' jersey numbers. (But be sure to take extras that look *exactly* the same, sans jersey number, for siblings - no matter how cool your other cupcakes look, they will pale in comparison and go untouched.)
So. Easy. Especially if you have either a) help, or b) a press-style decorator. The bag works beautifully, but unless you have calloused tendons from years of cake decorating already, the cramping starts in around the sixth cupcake.
By the twelfth cupcake, I began to appreciate child slave labor.
By the end of two dozen, my hands were shaking so badly, I was certain I'd developed a sudden-onset form of Parkinson's.
Oh, and #5 - take pictures *before* you leave for the party. The cupcakes won't last long enough to get a single shot once you arrive.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Sunday, April 13
Mexican Food and Pictures
The enchiladas looked identical. We could only tell the difference by eating a bite of each first.
Smidge chickened out at the last minute and ordered chicken nuggets. Normally, we don't go that route, but as you can see, he was feelin' the love...
EmBaby missed all the excitement. She woke up in time to get a Peppermint Patty at the register, though, so she wasn't too bummed about the whole thing. (And the nap did wonders for her general outlook!)
This is, at the new restaurant, a "chile relleno". It's in a BOWL, people! It's soupy! It has that white, floaty thing on top of it! This is so. incredibly. wrong. If you aren't familiar with chile rellenos, allow me to walk you through it. "chile", according to Dictionary.com, is -noun 2. very hot and finely tapering pepper of special pungency [syn: chili] and "relleno", –adjective 1. stuffed, esp. filled with cheese: chilis rellenos.
Or, better yet - –noun 2. a chili relleno. (Which, following this thought logically, would be "a tapering pepper stuffed with cheese". Or, something loosely resembling such.) Does anything in that bowl look like what I've just described? Other than that there is, clearly, cheese? No.
I kept waiting for Zorak to try some, and when I finally couldn't take it any longer and asked him when he was going to eat it, he laughed and said he was waiting for me to try it first. We ended up bringing it home. It didn't look any more appealing after the ride. I think he ate it last night, but he hasn't said anything, so I have no idea how it tasted.
And this last one wasn't taken at the restaurant (obviously). But this is how little JT spends most of his late afternoon naps - sprawled across my thighs, out cold, while EmBaby hovers over him, sticking things to his head and my pantlegs. Good stuff, that. Bonding time and all, you know. (Have I mentioned how incredibly patient this child is? One day, he will grow up, move out, and realize that nobody else has people hovering over them, in their faces, all. the. time. I hope he doesn't hold that against us...)
~Dy
Saturday, December 22
Christmas Tree Cakes
Why, yes, yes, they are wearing their pajamas. Sometimes we don't get around to something until it's, well, past bedtime, if I must be honest. :-) Don't they look traumatized?
And then, ta-da! Decorated, happy, semi-delicious trees. I think these silly little trees turned out to be one of the best projects we've done this season. The kids really enjoyed them. (So much so that there are actually a few missing. It seems there is no flat surface in this house that can keep EmBaby from her sugar fix.)
(The boys graciously agreed to let her keep the ones she'd already sucked on. How thoughtful, no?)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Thursday, December 20
Thanks!
And just when I was feeling quite together and such, Smidge brought me this lovely package of little gift bags and asked what they were for. "OH, those are for Daddy to take candies to his co-workers." Pause. Insert internal dialogue:
Uh... tomorrow's Friday. And then, it's Christmas. He won't see these people after tomorrow. I haven't made candy! When was I going to make candy? Why didn't I? Oh, yeah, I was sick. Nuts. Well, they'll probably appreciate that I didn't make candy *while* I was sick. Or, they would if they knew why there's no candy. Oh. Well.
There goes the General Sensation of Togetherness, as you can see. And so, that brings us up to date. :-) Yay. Putting Em down right now, and then I'm going to turn the boys loose to decorate the cupcake Christmas trees we attempted to make the other day.
What? I didn't mention those? Yeah. Probably because they didn't work so well. The cones we used collapsed. It'll take a month to burn off all the overspill in the oven. Then we tried making foil cones to hold the batter. Those weren't horribly stiff, and didn't want to hold your basic cone-shape. It was difficult to get the trees out from all the folds and creases. But they did come out. Mostly. We have a theme, at least: A Chernobyl Christmas.
Thankfully, the kids are all about the icing, which I'm not going to tell you about, either. So, thankfully-thankfully, the kids don't have terribly high standards and are just happy to be decorating what I claim are trees with what they know is a sugar-based substance. See? It's all good. No need for holiday stress, at all, if you're simply willing to
Yeah. Good stuff, really. Even when our tea cart is decorated with what looks suspiciously like an acid-rain forest, and Zorak has to hand out empty gift bags tomorrow. How did I get so lucky to have such an awesome family? Really. Good, good stuff.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Saturday, September 1
Piling Up
It's promotion Sunday for the children's Sunday School program, but only Smidge moves up to a new class. The other boys will now be the older ones in their classes (the classes are grouped two grades to a class), and will assume more responsibility, but they get to keep their teachers and their rooms. Not much will change for them, in that regard. But Smidge moves from the 2's and 3's room to the "Pre-K" room. Pre-K? Smidge? Ack. He's plenty excited, but I'm not ready for it. When we first started attending this church, he was nursery aged and he stayed with us all the time. How did he suddenly get old enough to be in a class with a designation to it?
Zorak glazed the bottom windows on the guest room today. They look lovely. Too bad the glazing takes "7-14 days to cure, depending on temperature and humidity" (this translates to: "if you live in the South, it's gonna be a few weeks, folks"). So much of this is on him, now, and he's got a lot on his plate, but one step at a time, and we'll get there. (He bought the heat gun for me, but that was the same week I bought the hpt, and come to find out using the heat gun to remove glazing is a no-no for expectant mamas. It's important enough that that's the one and only decipherable warning in the heat gun manual. I swear I don't get pregnant just to get out of doing work. Honest!)
The compost is composting nicely (this rain has helped with that quite a bit). The watermelons are coming in beautifully. Our pickling cucumbers (which will not be pickled, but it was a nice thought) are still producing regularly. Our regular cucumbers seem to have hybridized, but they're finally producing some interesting fruit. The pumpkins are still sportin' flowers, flowers, flowers, but no pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins. They've had flowers for a very long time, now. I've never seen a plant do that before, but they all are. *shrug* Obviously, we're not "farmers", in even the loosest sense of the word, or we'd have some idea why this is. Still, it's fun, and the children have learned so much this summer. So, while we won't be stocking our larder with canned goods from our garden's bounty, it's been rewarding in many other ways that count, and I can't say the adventure wasn't worth it. We all look forward to doing a much more proficient job next year!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Wednesday, June 20
Fruit Pizza
As you can see, it ends up looking better than it starts out. We were too impatient to wait for the crust to cool completely before adding the toppings. This was so easy to make, and the boys enjoyed both the making and the eating.
The crust recipes I found in my searches were, of course, all useless for a wheat-free crust (pre-made pie crust, cookie dough, etc.), so we used the Breakfast Foccacia recipe in The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. This recipe also makes a delightful danish!
The "sauce" is actually the cheese - equal parts cream cheese and whipped cream, beaten until smooth.
Top with your favorite fruits. In this case, I went with canned fruit - pineapples, mandarin oranges, and triple cherry fruit cocktail. This is the one and only time my children have willingly eaten fruit cocktail. (Our Wonderful Neighbors in MD would be so proud! *sniff* *sniff*) The oranges didn't make it onto the pizza. We fell to temptation. So good!
And in going with the whole cheese-as-sauce, sauce-as-cheese theme, the final product got drizzled with your basic, cooked, sugar-water-oj-vanilla sauce. There's some left over. We may have to make doughnuts tomorrow.
Sunday, June 17
Happy Father's Day!
The cake tasted delicious. Fortunately, you cannot taste "concave".
The carrots, while wholly experimental, were a big hit, too.
Mostly with the boys. But that's good. Happy is the Daddy who knows his children are loved as well as he is.
Kiss those babies, and Daddies, and anybody else who needs a little extra love today!
~Dy
Man, I am on a roll!
New, for Father's Day: Give the man in your life something that says
Erm, no. How about,
Nah.
The sales blurb for this particular gem (you know, in my imaginary baked goods store) would be something along the lines of, "two hollowed-out cake layers, filled to the brim with delicious cream cheese icing, held together with three or four tons of additional cream cheese icing, and topped with rolled buttercream carrots."
Ah. Well, the icing tastes good. The cake does, too. (What's left of it.) It just... exploded... in the oven. I'm not... entirely sure... what happened.
We'll see what miracles can be performed with the adhesive properties of grease and sugar!
Happy Father's Day!
Kiss those Daddies!
~Dy
Tuesday, June 12
A Few Things
I made a "rolled buttercream fondant" for the main icing. Tinted it deep yellow/gold and rolled it on. Oh, beautiful! Then, I needed to make a dark navy blue. Hmm, there's no blue-blue in this box of many colors. Only Sky Blue. Well, what do I mix to make it work (there's always a way to make it work!) After several panic-stricken hours online, and one rather cryptic phone call to Wilton:
W: Oh, honey, you can't make Navy Blue with sky blue. You need Royal Blue to make Navy Blue.
ME: Ok, but I don't *have* Royal Blue. I *have* Sky Blue, because that's what you put in your eight-pack.
W: Well, you'll need to get some Royal Blue.
ME: I'm an *hour* from the only store that both carries your stuff AND is open for the next 48 hours.
W: You need Royal Blue and Black.
ME: So, um, do you have anybody there who'd be willing to get a little crazy and wing it with me?
That's when she threw the rule book out the window and helped me figure it out. In case you ever run into this problem, it takes the ENTIRE tub of Sky Blue and a few dabs of Violet, and you will get Navy Blue. Oh, sure, I may be a bad influence on CSR's, but hey, we both learned something, and that's good.
Now, for the record, if you try to decorate a cake at home, make sure you turn the AC down. 80 degrees might feel nice and comfy *for you*, but your buttercream may beg to differ. It doesn't seem to matter how stiff you make it, it's gonna wilt, and sag, and probably streak. So, John's team got a lovely blue and gold Nightmare on Elm Street cake. *sigh*
EmBaby's rear seems to be on fire from the inside, and she's been rather miserable and clingy in a hold-me-only-by-the-armpits sort of way. She awoke this morning in such pain that she couldn't get up. Turns out she'd had a blowout sometime during the night, and that didn't help. She just lay there, trembling and crying, but unwilling to go through the torture of sitting on anything in order to stand. We spent a lot of time the last few days airing out, bathing in cool water, and eating bland, bland toast. I thought it had to be teething, and sure enough, there are two more on their way in. So, she should be better soon. I hope so!
Then, the Very Nice Lady from the dentist's office called yesterday. The conversation went like this:
VNL: Hi Mrs. Dy. I'm just calling to let you know that we have an opening for Tuesday at 5:30, and see if you'd like to take it.
ME: Um, TOMORROW?!?!?
VNL: ...Or would you rather keep your Thursday appointment?
ME: THURSDAY?!?!?!
VNL: ...Or did you completely forget you had an appointment this week?
ME: THIS WEEK!?!?
VNL: (who by now knows me well) So Zorak can take the kids and we'll see you tomorrow at 5:30?
ME: *whimper* OK. *sniff* Thanks. *sob*
So Zorak came home and I grabbed my current read (The Prince) and headed off for the root scaling.
I've gotta say, it's worth it. I'm actually (and no, not just blowing smoke, here) looking forward to next week. And it's not just so that the other side of my mouth will match, either. (Although that will be rather nice.) It. Is. Worth. It. If you've been putting off going to the dentist because you just *know* he'll tell you something horrible, well, here you go - short of doing meth, my teeth seem to have been about as bad as they can be, and the worst they can tell you is that they can help you. Go. And I'm going to go to bed. :-)
Oh, if I owe you an email, give me until tomorrow night to respond. I haven't checked email in a while, and now that the novacaine is wearing off, I'm not checking it tonight, either. Please know I'm not ignoring you. I'm simply overwhelmed with wilty icing, dental visits, some computer trouble, and erupting toddler. Things should be back down to a dull roar by tomorrow.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Tuesday, May 15
Oh, my!
*heh*
This is fun. And the banana bread looks higher and fluffier than it's ever been before.
I *heart* Sunny.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Tuesday, May 8
Kitchen Chat
We had a pretty good day today, all around. Lots of time outside. A good portion of time really connecting with each other. I've been working hard on not letting my own lacking strength or enthusiasm seep out onto the boys, and I *think* (hope, pray!) it's beginning to sink in with me. So I set the tone, and really, they do tend to follow suit. (Funny how that works. Remind me of this when we have "one of those days" - odds are good it'll be because I dropped the ball.) One of them was feeling a bit contrary, a bit cranky, but he opened right up when I approached him about it and we were able to get to the root of the matter. It doesn't always go down that well, but when it does, it feels like winning a marathon. Or how I would envision it would feel to win a marathon. Maybe a three-legged race? I don't know, but it felt good.
The boys have been ploughing through the fruits and veggies lately, so we had to make an emergency trip into town for more fresh stuff. (NOT complaining!) It was nice to load up on things with the boys' input. Asparagus is in season right now, so we picked up five pounds of that. (You can never have enough asparagus on hand. Never.) With the grill now dead, we've been brainstorming quick meals. It's not so much preparation time, but more specifically we needed meals that will not require the oven, and only minimal stovetop use. Stir fry fits that bill nicely! I do love summer cooking.
I sent the boys ahead to find the next aisle we needed, and John approached a little girl at the end of one aisle and began talking with her, kidding with her, squirrelling around a bit. That took me off guard. "Huh," I thought, "he doesn't usually just dive right into - OH MY WORD, did he just nudge that child with his elbow?!?!?" Thankfully that was all internal. Turned out to be one of the girls on his baseball team. I'm glad he recognized her, because I've never seen her with her hair down, dressed in something other than practice clothes or their game uniforms. It was nice to actually run into someone we know while we're at the market. That was a normal occurrence when we lived back out west, and I didn't realize how much I've missed it. So, small Poky Little Puppy distraction. Kind of nice.
We found little gardening hand tool sets for the boys, so they're each
Since I had my act together, we finished eating early enough to go outside and play after supper. (That skill's going to come in handy when the summer humidity hits!) While we were out there, Zorak had a Truly Brilliant idea, probably inspired by one of the children running smack into the woodpile in the dark *again*. He dug out our camping lantern and hung it on the cheesy windmill thing in the upper meadow, then pulled the picnic table over close enough to enjoy the light, but not so close that we had to deal with bugs. The boys played some horrible combination of rugby, football, high-speed cop chase... I'm not sure what it was, but it sounded fun. And painful. Baby Girl and Smidge walked atop the railroad ties around the windmill, ooohhhing and ahhhing over the bugs, the leaves, the stars in the sky. And I can't believe we did this, but Zorak and I sat on either end of the picnic bench for a good five minutes before we realized...
"HEY, we're the only two here!"
*scootch* *scootch*
"Mmmm, much better."
So what began as a simple means of preventing major neck injuries in the Small Ones turned into a lovely impromptu date night and family excursion. (The garden-gnome version of a windmill is still outta here the first chance we get, but now we think we'll replace it with a post for hanging the lantern.)
Did you have an enjoyable day today?
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Thursday, May 3
Too yummy not to share.
One can of coconut milk.
Half a cup of cold water.
2 Tbsp. cooking oil (NOT olive, okay? Ew.)
1/4-ish c. sugar (or perhaps honey? Somebody try honey and let us know how it works!)
Dump all this into your blender. Fill it almot to the top with ice. Blend for two full minutes.
Goes great with lunch! (And look, Melissa, it's kinda healthy... And Amy, I didn't use the "t" word!)
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Wednesday, May 2
I need a name for these!
Anyway, I have no idea what to call these things, and the only things popping into my head are cheesy 1960's-era names like "Heavenly Squash Cakes" or "One Potato, Two Potato, Three..." well, ew. That's just where I give up. (And this would probably be a good time to remind you all to visit the Gallery of Regrettable Foods! If you haven't been before, you'll laugh until you embarrass yourself or your loved ones. If you haven't been in a while, well, nothing like a little Broiled Yeti... yeah, to get you through the arsenic hour! *note: not for the children, the squeamish, or the prim*)
However, this recipe is a wholly G-rated, family affair. EmBaby has eaten two already, and supper's not even on the table.
Here, try them:
-Pre-heat your griddle to... oh, let's go with Hot.
-Make the two-serving size of instant mashed potatoes. (Or make two servings of regular mashed potatoes. I won't tell if you won't.)
-Shred one yellow squash and one zucchini (use the carrot shredder)
-Sautee (brown, whatever, I'm not finicky) half an onion and one clove of garlic (squished or pressed - however you break it up is fine) just until softened
Dump the potatoes and the squashes into a big bowl. Crack an egg into that, and blend. Add the onions and seasoning to taste. Blend well.
The mixture will be a bit thin for cooking at this point. Throw in some flour. I used bean flour. You can use whatever you'd normally use. (Why do I even bother with writing down recipes? I know.) About a quarter to half a cup, depending on how much moisture your squashes had in them. It'll be about the consistency of pancake batter when it's right. Lumpy pancake batter with colorful bits in it.
Use some kind of scooping device (I'd go with a Tablespoon, for uniformity and ease of flipping) to scoop the concoction onto the Hot griddle. Smooth out a bit. Cook until brown on one side. Flip. Repeat. Remove to plate.
OK, seeing it written down, they're basically potato pancakes with squash. That doesn't sound as good as these things taste, though. Seriously - YUM!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Monday, April 23
Someone's in the Kitchen With Dy, Now
Well, we made it there and back again. The Suburban is now provably legal. (Is that a made up word? It feels like it.) Anyhow, I can't vouch for the pickup, but that's a whole 'nuther post.
The boys were in an awesome place today. Aside from the paperwork and organizing issues, I was in an awesome place today. It was good, all around. We needed a really good day. James got up early, so we had hot tea and played chess. Then I tried to convince him to go for a walk with me. "But MOOOOOOOOOOM, it's FREEZING out!" It is not. Let's go. "OK, let me get my winter coat out..." So, to prove that a hoodie would work just fine, we checked the weather. 64 degrees. "That's practically snowing!" I was going to clear up that little misconception, but by then Smidge and Emily were awake and in need of some snuggles, so James was spared a trek across the Tundra. :-) Funny kid.
We made a fantastic banana bread. I found the recipe at Fitness and Freebies' wheat-free recipes section. And, of course, I modified it a bit. *grin*. If you'd like to see the original, you can find that here. But here's what we did with it:
WF Banana Bread
1 c. flour blend (I use mostly garbanzo, fava, brown rice and a little white rice - just use whatever)
1/4c. teff flour (I've been slipping this into *everything* lately. It's like I've become the neighborhood grain dealer. *psst*, Kid, wanna buy some protein?)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt (ok, I don't measure a quarter of a teaspoon of anything - that's officially "a sprinkle" in my kitchen)
1 packet gelatin
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. sugar
3 egg yolks (Trust me, save the whites. They come in later, and you don't want to be staring at the trash, thinking, "Why didn't somebody tell me to reserve the whites?" I'm telling you now.)
1 tsp. vanilla (OK, I'm a bit liberal with my vanilla - I just splash it in til it looks right. Odds are good there was more than one teaspoon in this loaf.)
3/4 c. mashed banana (I used two bananas and figured they'd have to work, whether they made exactly 3/4 c. or not - turned out pretty close. I don't think this is a horribly touchy ingredient.)
1/4 c. plain yogurt (We never have plain. I always forget that I'll need it for baking. I used vanilla. You could also use sour cream. Or even buttermilk. Really, it's your bread. Have fun with it.)
3 egg whites (Preferably the ones you saved from earlier.)
Preheat your oven to 350'. Grease AND FLOUR your pan. I like rice flour. It's the least expensive of the wf options, and doesn't seem to get absorbed by the rest of the batter. Win-win, in my book.
Sift all your dry ingredients into a medium-sized bowl. (If you don't want to sift, you can dump and whisk - works equally well.)
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and continue to beat until light. (Seriously, it'll get somewhat fluffy.)
Mix in the banana and yogurt. Blend well. Add dry ingredients. Blend well (yes, again. I know.)
Now, in a small bowl, beat your egg whites until soft peaks form. This is for the texture of the loaf. Once you've got soft peaks, fold the beaten egg white gently into the batter. You don't want to mix it in too much, b/c it's the little air bubbles in the egg white that will pull mock-gluten duty and keep your bread afloat. Just fold it in. You won't end up with a weird quiche-loaf. And if you do, then tell everybody it's quiche-loaf and swear you never said a thing about banana bread. But I've done this a lot and never had to rely on that one.
Turn it all into your pan, smooth the top and pop into the oven.
Clean the kitchen, kick back, read to the kids, and in an hour you're eating delicious fresh banana bread. Tada!
My one and only gripe is that it makes just one loaf, and I've not had a whole lot of success in doubling my recipes. However, I'm going to master this one. The entire loaf is gone, except for the bits that stuck to the pan. (The original recipe says only to grease the pan, but I'd recommend slapping a little rice flour in it, too.)
On the upside, my hand-held mixer finally died today. I usually use it until it starts to emit a burning smell, then switch to the trusty wooden spoon. Today, there was no smell. Just a very loud, obvious clanging... and a slowing... of the beaters... until, finally... they stopped. As the clanging grew disturbingly loud, James looked up from his math and said, "WHAT are you making?" Heh. Yep, that's my boy. So why is that the upside? It means, WOOHOO! (singing) I can buy a mixer now! I can buy a mix-er! We need a heavy-duty one. One with a transmission in it. Yeah, baby!
Lessons, lessons, lessons. Good, good, good. Math, reading, Latin, science. Stories. Snacks. More banana bread. Play time. Errands. 'Nuggles. Laughter. Baby kisses. Toddler hugs. Big kids who still hold my hand while we walk, who still give me hugs for no reason. Even if I'm not holding baked goods. What more could I ask for from the day? Not. A. Thing. Ahhhh. Yes.
Next week looks like it'll be heavy on the doctor visits. Nobody's sick, it's just that everybody needs something at the same time. And when we must do several things at the same time, I realize there are a lot of us. I told Claudia today that I need a personal secretary. She pointed out that I'm kinda-sort Zorak's personal secretary. Oh. Wow, he's getting gypped, then, isn't he? But maybe if I can get him to promote me to "Executive Secretary", then I can start the hunt for an "Assistant Executive Secretary" for ME? Yeah? Think it'll work? Me, neither. But it's fun to pretend.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
Monday, February 12
Renovation Tidbits: Landscape
He said, "OK, that sounds good. You get spooled up on all that and let me know what we need to do."
*blink* *blink*
Wha-what?!? What?! NO! How'd he do that? That was most certainly NOT my plan! Nowhere near my plan. My plan involved me, staying inside (in the a/c) this summer, watching my beloved and our darling offspring do the natural-man thing. My plan was to greet them at the door with iced tea, fresh biscuits and gazpacho! My plan kept me far, far from the poison ivy, and the ticks, and the sweat, and the ticks.
And the ticks.
Gah. He's crafty, that one. It's a good thing he's cute, that's all I have to say.
So we're off to the County Extension Office today to find out what to do with a dying persimmon tree, how to cultivate
Give me a bed of cactus, or anything that grows in the Rocky Mountains, and I'm good to go. But all the Southern bit of Nature's Bounty leaves me realizing I would die in less than two weeks in the wilderness out here. Not from exposure. Not from dehydration. But from all those juicy, sweet, deadly berries!
Gah.
Kiss those babies, and tell them not to eat these:
~Dy
Thursday, February 8
Categories and Labels?
I like categories that are actually helpful for people who are looking for something specific. For instance, wheat-free, or food. Books are a helpful category. What else have you found helpful? Or do you ignore them? Or do you also obsess over them and find yourself either giving every single entry a category of its very own, or trying to much things into pathetically vague categories, like lumping your homeschooling, political activism, latest reading lists, cute kid stories, and latest kitchen fiasco all into "education"? C'mon, fill me in, here.
Kiss those babies (and which category do you put them in?)
~Dy