More from the hook and cook

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this has been a busy week for me.  Here’s what I’ve created this week:

Crochet Flowers

I’ve been working on these for about a week (I’d been thinking about them ever since I saw them on Pinterest.)  You can check the pattern out here – basically you crochet flower, stem, and leaves, then sew them all together and run floral wire through the stem to make them stiff.  The floral wire was by far the hardest part for me – and I’m still not entirely happy with it, because it keeps sliding out the ends of the stem.  Individually, I think they look pretty cute, but they make me very happy all bunched together in a vase like this.  These are all for gifts, but I think I might make myself a bunch just to have around.  I’ve never been a fan of fake flora, but these are so far from looking real that they don’t disappoint me the way ordinary faux flowers do.

Happy flowers!

My favorite one - and all because I didn't have enough of any purple to finish a whole flower.

Valentine’s Heart Boxes

I made 19 of these!  They’re a dark (or milk) chocolate box filled with dark (or milk) chocolate truffle hearts.  I didn’t track how many hours I worked on these, although it probably would have been good to know, just so I could figure out my hourly wage from them.  I started on Wednesday, experimenting with different methods of filling the boxes so that they were hollow but stable.  And that took some doing.  I finally settled on pouring several tablespoons of chocolate in the box, then slowly tipping the mold around in a circle several times so that it coated the sides thickly enough that they’d hold up.  Even so I broke a good third of them, and had to melt them down and start again. 

They're very cute - but looking at the picture closely you can see how very fragile they are!

Spicy Chocolate Wafer Hearts

These are for Lance.  He likes these wafer cookies (from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet) with cinnamon and a little cayenne pepper thrown in.  Since these are a slice-and-bake cookie, I experimented a little with the heart shape.  At first I tried cutting them with a dowel underneath the “log” of cookie dough, thinking that might give me the indentation at the top of the heart – instead it just meant I had a hard time cutting all the way through the log!  So I pretty much just cut circles and then shaped them by hand.

Window Sandwich Cookies

These are becoming a Valentine’s Day tradition for me – and I love the way they turn out, both aesthetically and visually.  Basically, it’s two sugar cookies (I use the basic sugar cookie recipe from Southern Livings’s Incredible Cookies) filled with chocolate buttercream.  I just cut a “window” out of the top cookie as I’m cutting them out – like you do with linzer cookies.  This year there were no mishaps with little fingers stealing buttercream out of the window!

Butternut Squash Ravoli

On Saturday night we had guests for dinner (fulfilling that goal of hospitality!), and I invited them to come early so that we could cook together.  First, we made half-whole-wheat pasta, rolling it out with the pasta attachment to my KitchenAid.  Then we placed small dots of butternut squash filling (I pureed baked butternut squash with ricotta cheese, walnuts, and some Italian seasoning) on one sheet of pasta, wet the dough all around the filling, and topped it with another pasta sheet.  Then we used a heart cookie cutter to cut out the ravioli.  I have to say that using that cookie cutter is a fun idea, but wastes an awful lot of dough!  It’s definitely a special-occasion method.  Because these use fresh pasta, they only take like 2 minutes (max!) to cook.  I also experimented with a tomato-ricotta-mushroom sauce.  The combination was great, even though both “recipes” were untried.  And the best part?  Judith ate three whole ravioli! It's the first time she's asked for more of something we were "forcing" her to try.

Aren't they cute?

Bittersweet Chocolate Cheesecake with White Truffle Sauce

Of course when there’s company I get to make a fancy dessert!  This one is extra rich, which was a good complement to our not-too-heavy dinner.  The recipe (from Betty Crocker’s Everything Chocolate) doesn’t call for a crust, but I made one anyway.  I should have left it out – I’m not entirely sure what I did, but the crust baked so hard that we couldn’t cut it with a fork, and had to pick it up like a cookie.  It still tasted good though!

Sunday Morning Apple Coffee Cake

I found this recipe here, while I was searching last night for a coffee cake recipe for our community breakfast at church this morning.  Instead of using 5 apples, I used two apples, with a cup of chopped pecans and a cup of dried cranberries.  Since the recipe uses baking powder, and I know that baking powder batters can sit for a long time, I put everything together last night, and just baked it this morning in time for church.  It took much less time than the recipe calls for (20 minutes less!), and I’m not sure whether that’s because it had been sitting for so long or if there’s another reason.  It was good, though – not too sweet, but still satisfying.  I’ll likely make it again.  (Sorry.  No picture.:-)

The Joy

My heart is fed when I bake - and even more so when I do so with a friend.  And most of these are gifts - I love to give gifts!  There was joy aplenty for me, in spite of the stress of busy-ness.

Joy to you!

Barbara 

Busy Busy Busy

I realized today that it’s been almost a week since I blogged anything.  (And thought, “if I’m trying to stick to my goal of blogging once a week, I’d better get on it!”)   This week’s been super busy (aren’t most weeks for most people?), and blogging just moved to the back burner as I fit everything in.  Here’s an overview of what’s been going on.  (Sorry, no pictures - I've only been taking pictures of my artistic endeavors lately, and you'll have to wait 'til tomorrow's blog for those!)

Valentine’s Heart Boxes

On a whim, I posted a picture on facebook of some edible chocolate heart boxes that I’d made last fall.  When I immediately got three orders, I decided to post the same picture as a flyer in my Curves and see what happened.  I ended up with nineteen orders!  Wonderful.  Amazing.  Help!  I’ve been working non-stop for several days, molding and filling the truffle hearts and the boxes.  But I’m done now!  (Breathe)  And I can get started on all the other Valentine’s gifts that I had intended to do this week.

Dentist

On Monday I had a cleaning at my new dentist.  And on the dentist’s receptionist’s recommendation, I had Lance bring Judith along to my appointment so that she can start being comfortable in the office.  She got to brush a dinosaur’s teeth, and she got to watch the hygienist clean my teeth.  And then she got a sticker at the end (I didn’t get a sticker...no fair!).  The hygienist also looked at her teeth (again – no fair!  She never lets me look in there.) and pronounced them beautiful – so I’m not too worried about getting her in to actually seethe dentist for a while.  On the whole, a good first experience.

Co-op Preschool

Also on Monday (in fact, we went straight there from the dentist) I attended a planning meeting with three other moms for a co-op preschool that we’ll be starting.  Four kids, four moms – rotating houses and rotating teaching responsibilities.  We start this Monday (Judith’s going to school (sort of) in two days!) at another mom’s house.  I get to observe for the first two weeks and then dive in to “teaching.”   I am excited to see how Judith does in “class”, really interacting with other kids and having to listen to a teacher for a while.  She’s done that at MOPS, but it’s not something I’ve observed.  Look for an update next week about how the first day went!

Raley’s

On Wednesday we ran some errands, and ended at Raley’s, one of our local grocery stores.  When we walked in, the kids’ center caught Judith’s attention.  I’ve  always known that Raley’s had a kids center (you can drop your kids off for free and they’re entertained while you shop!), but it never occurred to me to use it.  Raley’s is a little out of my price range, and I’m usually only running in for one specialty item.  That was the case on Wednesday too, but  Judith was so taken with the coloring and movie-watching going on in the kids’ center that I let her stay.  (AAAAH...she’s growing up. and independent. And she doesn’t need me all the time anymore!)  It was, admittedly, very nice to walk leisurely through the store to find my stuff without Judith in tow.  And she had a great time and didn’t want to leave with me.  I guess we’ll have to try it again some time!

Tupperware

I hosted a Tupperware party on Thursday night (I was not anticipating all those chocolate box orders when I scheduled the party!).  And we let Judith stay up for it.  It didn’t start until her bedtime, but the Tupperware consultant was there before bedtime, and we didn’t think Judith would be able to fall asleep if she heard strange voices in the house anyway.  So we just planned for her to be up (way too) late.  She had a blast.  She flirted with each person who came, she tried constantly to get the Tupperware lady to give her things, and she ate lots of snacks.  The rest of us had fun too – and I even got free stuff.

Shaun the Sheep

Judith is still very taken with Shaun, and likes to pretend that she’s Shaun, while I’m the mommy sheep and Daddy’s the daddy sheep.  And then she talks in nothing but “baaa”.  Yes, it’s highly imaginative, and I don’t want to stifle my child’s creativity, but it’s also highly annoying!  I’ve tried to explain that I really can’t understand anything she says in baaa, but that doesn’t help.  She just gets more emphatic. I guess she understands herself?
Vegetable Garden Already?
Our wonderful (unseasonal) weather has meant that I've been able to get out in the yard!  (Although, again, if I'd anticipated all the chocolate boxes, I'd have spent less time out there.)  I've divided and replanted my irises, and I also planted some vegetables!  In February!    On Monday I planted some lettuce, carrots, and beets from seed (hoping they might actually grow in my wonderful dirt), and am breathlessly anticipating their appearance. 

 

Two Updates:

Potty Training

I’m a little leery of writing this, given what usually happens when I share any positive potty training news.  Judith seems to actually be getting it.  She still has accidents, and she still has times when she’s gyrating like crazy in the potty dance and refusing to admit that she has to go.  But she’s also be initiating trips to the bathroom on her own (including #2), and she’s very proud of herself when she does so.  I think there might be light at the end of this tunnel!

Eating

I got sooo many responses to my blog about eating, and I’ve assimilated some of the ideas into our routine.  I’ve been insisting that Judith at least try a little of whatever we’re eating (if it’s not something she already eats, of course) before she gets her own dinner.  Most of the time she takes a long time to try whatever it is, and then will try to eat as little as we’ll let her get away with.  Once in a while she’s actually liked whatever it was and even eaten more!  She does have to try everything every time we eat it, even if she didn’t like it the last time.  I figure we’re at least exposing her to new/more foods and eventually the list of what she eats will grow. 

The Joy

While I wouldn’t really classify this week as a trial, it has been extremely busy and I’ve had times when I wondered if I’d make it through to the weekend without having a meltdown.  I can joyfully say that I was at least consistent with having my quiet time (not always at the same time every day), and that provided some calm to look forward to each day.  And in writing this blog, I find joy in Judith’s progress and growth.  We persevered!

Joy to you!

Barbara

By hook and by cook

Here's my weekly (well, it's the first one, but I intend for it to be weekly) update on what I've baked/cooked in the past week, and what I've crocheted.  Where applicable, I'll include links to patterns and recipes, but I'm not going to type out anything that's not already online somewhere (unless specifically requested!).

In the Kitchen this week:
(see Monday's post)
Brownie Cookies
Also known as "deep dark decadence".  They're dark chocolate "brownie" batter, with dark chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.  Needless to say, they're a family favorite.  The recipe's from the Williams Sonoma Cookies book, so I'm not going to list it here. 

Brownie cookies - fresh out of the oven

 "Valentine's Day" meal

We celebrate V-day early, and ate at home to save money.  As shown below, my husband got pan-seared ahi while I had an oven-roasted portabello.  On the side we had apple, walnut, gorgonzola salad with maple-balsamic dressing that I found a recipe for at this blog.  For dessert we had chocolate mousse cups, which I didn't take a picture of because they weren't beautiful.  They were an experiment based on a triple-layer cheesecake that I make - I made a normal chocolate mousse mix, scooped 1/3 of it into the bottom of two dishes, and added increasing amounts of (extra) whipped cream to layers 2 and 3.  They were tasty, but a little grainy...and I didn't add enough cream to layer 2, so there was very little difference from layer 1.  Next time I think I'll just try this recipe that I found on Pinterest.

Valentine's Day dinner

Not much else was cooking last week, but I'm gearing up for Valentine's Day!  This coming week should be busier.

Crochet Projects
Chemo Caps
Two of my friends from church are going through chemo right now, and when I saw this pattern on Pinterest, I was immediately inspired to make them.  The first one (pictured below, stunningly modeled by my daughter) took me much longer than it should have because it took me about five tries to get the band around the hat to be the right size.  When I followed the directions as printed, it kept fanning out exponentially and just wouldn't fit.  I finally followed some directions I found (Pinterest again!) for making a foundation row without using a chain, and then crochet the rest of the band in a smaller hook size.  I made the second hat in red, and it went much more quickly.

chemo cap

Lance's Scarf

Isn't it beautiful?

At Christmas time, when I was making a number of scarves for presents, it occurred to me that my husband might like one!  So I asked - and he said he'd wear one if it wasn't "too phoofy".  So I searched through my pattern books, and through the yarn at the craft store to find some combination that would be both impressive and non-phoofy.  Here's the result.  And I must say (bragging!) that I love it...the pattern (basketweave stitch) and the yarn.  And Lance's does too.  He's actually worn it every day since I gave it to him. 

There was drama though, because I was (proud) enough to want to take a picture to post on Pinterest - and then I somehow forgot to put it away before he came home...and he saw it, and came out the next morning wearing it.  When I burst into tears (it was supposed to be a surprise! and I'd been so careful - I thought - about keeping it hidden), Judith said (in a conciliatory tone) "Daddy, you can't have this now." and took it and "hid" it in her room.  (She and I wrapped it and gave it to him before our Valentine's celebration.)

I'm also continuing to work on my afghan, as well as some secret gift projects that might show up here next week.

The Joy - do I even need to write this?  I love to be in the kitchen, especially when chocolate is involved.  And crochet gives me almost as much joy, especially once the project is done and I can give it to someone and see their joy.  And I took joy, too, in my little girl's efforts at playing peacemaker, even when her mama was irrational.

Joy to you!
Barbara

Minutiae

It's been a few days since I blogged, mostly because nothing momentous has been happening.  So today I'm writing about the simple, "normal" things we did.  There's joy in the small things too.

Playing:
Judith's been all over the map (the map of the universe!) in her playing lately.  It's fun to watch.  Some highlights:

• She's begun to narrate her life in the third person.  For example, she won't say, "I'm going to get out of the car."  She'll say, "And then she said, 'Mama, I'm going to get out of the car.' and her Mama said to her, 'OK, precious.'"  (At which point I am required to say whatever she just narrated me as saying!)  We think this might stem from her recent introduction to the old Rock and Bullwinkle cartoons, which are narrated in classic narrator style.  Wherever it came from, it's quite entertaining, and at least gives us a good idea of what her "preferred reality" is for the moment.
• She's been enjoying the chalk board side of her easel because she can erase the chalk herself.  But instead limiting herself to an eraser, she's discovered that she can erase the chalk with her hands.  The first day she did this, she also experimented with "stamping" chalk handprints all over the furniture!  She was very proud of herself, but I'm afraid I had to veto her re-decorating ideas.  We've since established the guideline that handprints may be stamped only on paper.

chalky hands

• I love that she incorporates the shows that she watches into her own play.  Today, as I worked outside in the yard, she was running around playing "Shaun the Sheep".  She ran in circles "baaing" frequently, and was picking grass for "Shirley" (another sheep from the show).  Now, I know that it's entirely possible that she'd play at being some animal or other even if she hadn't seen some on TV, but the specific things that she remembers and incorporates amaze me.  There's one episode where Shirley (who's the biggest sheep) is put on a diet.  And so Judith was instructing Shirley that she had to wait until all the grass was picked, and that she could only eat what Judith (Shaun) gave her.  Given that there's no talking in the show, I was pretty impressed how she put the action in her own words.  (Yes, I'm biased - but her imagination continues to astound me.)  As a fun side note, she was also noticing that the grass was growing back in places where we'd weeded it out before.  "Mama!  I keep picking and picking, but there's always more grass growing!"  (Umm, yes.  Grass tends to do that.)

Gardening
I spent a good two hours working some of that lovely dirt into more of my garden.  I'm deciding to go all out this year, given that I've got an abundance of extraordinary soil to work with this year.  So I'm not limiting myself to the four raised beds, or even to the beds and the bottom of the terrace this year.  I ripped out an old (huge!) lavender plant, and now have a much larger space to work with (although tilling the soil is pretty back-breaking!).  I'm dreaming of lettuce (if I can keep the slugs away!), beets (I try them every year and they've only made it once), carrots (another favorite from the garden that I just can't get to grow!), and even potatoes!  That's in addition to the tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, and zucchini that I grow every year.  It's easy to dream now; it's even easy to actually plant all these things.  The difficulty will come when the weather turns hot, and I've got to keep everything alive!

the Joy:  As I said above, there's joy in the small stuff too.  There's joy in just spending time with my daughter, watching her grow, and observing her imagination at work.  There's joy in ripping out weeds and anticipating seeds sprouting and producing fruit (or veggies!).

Joy to you!
Barbara

Busy Kitchen

Yesterday Judith's friend came to play again, so I took the opportunity to spend some time in the kitchen.  (It's wonderful to have Judith entertained by someone else, even if they do require mediation with regularity.)  As I was cooking, it occurred to me that I haven't yet blogged about any food!  That's pretty bizarre, considering that I used to have a separate blog just for baking.  It seems that after the insanity of December (I was baking nonstop for four weeks!), I haven't really been focusing on baking, although I could have written about the Chocolate Cream Tart with Pecan Shortbread Crust I made for Lance's uncle's birthday, and my adventures with Spaghetti Carbonara for the same dinner. 

At any rate, here's what I was working on yesterday (at one point four of these were going simultaneously!):

• homemade greek style yogurt - I started making this more than a year ago when I started finding ways to get extra protein.  The store bought stuff is yummy, but so expensive, so I googled alternatives.  This website got me started, and I've improvised my own methods to compensate for the equipment I don't have.  It's especially wonderful because Judith loves it (she thinks it's ice cream) and I make a batch for Lance and her that I sweeten with local OV honey.
• no bake "cookie" balls - Pinterest got me turned on to these!  They're pretty close to "raw" (if only I could bring myself to leave out the chocolate chips, they would be!), and with the flaxseed in them, they're pretty healthy for my little girl, especially because I sub unsweetened coconut for the coconut flakes.  And with local honey (raw) in them, they help with seasonal allergies too!
• butternut squash, red lentil, and garbanzo stew in the crock pot - Pinterest again.  It won't surprise anyone who knows me that I made this without all the called for spice.  (Well, not all - I did add the garlic, and some bouquet garni.)  It was a little overly sweet that way, but considering that I'm juststarting to tolerate butternut squash (it's always too sweet for me), it was pretty good.  (And it felt fantastic to be able to throw all the detritus in my composter instead of in the trash!)
• cooking the garbanzos for above stew, and baking the leftover squash to freeze for later - I'm kind of a slow food junky.
• whole wheat biscuits - I googled "whole wheat biscuits" because I wanted to try some with the stew.  And I was totally appalled by how many "whole wheat" recipes were actually half whole wheat.  In fact, this one was the only one I found that was totally whole wheat.  They were yummy!

In the future, I intend to do a weekly "This Week in the Kitchen" kind of entry, unless I bake something totally fantastic that I simply have to blog about right away.  :-)

The Joy:  It's really not hard for me to find joy in the kitchen.  I'm so wired to image my Creator by creating in this way.  Every time I bake it's worship - and my body and soul rejoice!  I'm also finding joy in following my goal to eat healthier.

Joy to you!
Barbara

Playdate Crafts

Judith's good friend Kirsten came over for a playdate this afternoon.  They play pretty well together for the most part (they are 3 1/2, after all!), but, just in case, I had a couple contingency activities for them.  I decided to have them do the activities just to give them a little break from the "stress" of constant toy sharing.

No-Mess Finger Painting
A friend of mine blogged this craft yesterday (http://thosecraftycomers.blogspot.com/), and I thought it looked like something Judith might enjoy. 

Put blobs of paint in a ziplock bag.  Squeeze the air out of the bag.  Tape the bag to the window (or, presumably, any flat surface).  "Draw" on the outside of the bag with your fingers - spreading the paint around and making designs.

finger painting

I think Judith enjoyed it - but it wasn't Kirsten's cup of tea, and peer pressure made Judith abandon it before she might have otherwise.  She did go back to it this evening (I'd left it hanging on the window), and she was having fun drawing letters and making dots. 

Before I do it again, I think I'll purchase additional paints.  It might have been a little more exciting if there were more than four colors.

Fishing by Magnet
Found this craft on Pinterest (golly, I love that site!) (http://pinterest.com/pin/205758276695263330/), and decided to put it together on the spur of the moment when I knew Kirsten was coming over.  I gathered some paint sample cards (lots of bright colors!), cut fish shapes from them, and clipped a paper clip to the top of each fish.  I cut some short sticks from pile of tree trimmings that's out in the back yard, and we tied a piece of yarn to the end of each stick and taped a little magnet onto the string.  This activity was hit.  The girls had a wonderful time fishing off "the bridge" (over the foot of my bed) and proclaiming in loud voices the color of the fish they had just caught.  I gave them a little bucket to put their "caught" fish in.  When they were all gathered, the girls could just "toss them back to the sea" and start over.  And at the end of our playdate, Kirsten could take home her pole and some of the fish.  (Of course then we had to make Daddy a pole so Judith has someone to fish with :-).

"Hey look - fish!"

 

 

Making a fishing pole

Fishing off the bridge

The Joy
It's wonderful to watch (and listen to) the girls play together.  They're learning, little by little, what it means to have conversation, to play together, and to share the things they want.  I remember their laughter and their arguments - their constant joy in being together, and it lifts my heart.  We, as humans, are created so much in need of that kinship with each other.  I'm learning that I need to plan grown-up "playdates" to fill that need in my own heart.

Joy to you!
Barbara

A New Name

Since I re-started my blog, I've been ruminating about a new title for it.  (I did change it (to montyfordsgirls) when I combined them, but only as a place-holder for the final result of my ponderings.)  And this morning, as I lay awake wishing I wasn't awake, I found the title I wanted. 

As part of my resolution to study my Bible, I have recently decided to study the book of James with a friend.  And yesterday, as I read through the five chapters to start with an overview, I was struck by  James 1:2-4, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (ESV)  And in today's early morning hours, as I was thinking about what title I could come up with that would encompass all of my life - all the things I blog about and who I want to be - it occurred to me, that that's what I really want: to be joyful in all circumstances, and to be steadfast in my faith. The NIV, which is the version I grew up memorizing, translates verse 2, "consider it pure joy..." and I like the ring of that!

Joy has further significance for me, because it's my middle name (no really, it is).  And I want very much to live up to it.  I don't want to go through life finding fault with my circumstances, myself, or the people around me.  I want instead to shine with the Joy of steadfast faith, seeing all of life - the trials and the blessings; the mundane and the extraordinary - as the process that brings me into greater alignment with who God calls me to be.

I hope that my new blog title will channel my focus for this blog.  I will still blog about whatever's going on - Judith, parenting, cooking, baking, crocheting, crafting, and more - but it's my intention to "wrap up" every entry with "The Joy" - the way(s) in which I can find Joy for that day.  (I imagine that some days the joy may be difficult to find, while some days it'll be self-evident.)

And I've found my sign-off, which I'm borrowing from a friend:

Joy to you!
Barbara