What’s Changed?

I was chastised recently by someone for not updating the ol’ blog since August. “Well,” I responded, “if you can add a few more hours to each day, I might just do that.”

His response to me in turn got me to thinking. “What’s changed since you were keeping up with it so often a couple of years ago? You were working and had two kids then as well.” (That’s paraphrased, but the general idea of what was said.)

What’s changed you ask? Well, a lot to be perfectly honest.

One thing that has changed over this year is a new commitment on my part to exercise regularly, be healthier and hopefully, as a result, lose some weight. That takes time. And it’s paid off, too. At this writing I have lost about 35 pounds since the beginning of January. How I’ve done it is probably a completely separate blog post, and if you’re interested, I’ll work on that. But suffice it to say at this point that it takes time and focus to be able to do it.

Also this year, I have taken the plunge. I have put myself out there. I have begun taking orders and selling my pies and desserts. As it turns out, it seems that people like what I make and are willing to pay me for it. At this point this is just a side gig and something that will hopefully help pay for camps the kids want to attend and our vacations. I am mostly selling to friends and family and was very unsure about it when I started. However, Thanksgiving was very encouraging in every respect; from the number of orders I received (even some calls from complete strangers who found either my website or Facebook page) to the fact that I felt like I could have taken on a few more. So as anyone who has been involved in any size of small business venture knows, it takes a lot of time and brain power to set things up and keep them going.

Another thing that has changed is the age of my kids. As a young mom, you think that as they get older and more self-responsible that they become lower maintenance and you’ll have more time. Then you get to the point where they are older, and so are you, and you realize that you were WRONG! Even with our house rule of only one sport per season in addition to piano, I still find that we are so busy now with their school work, activities and involvements that it cancels out the time that I’m not spending changing diapers and taking care of many of their day to day needs that they now take care of themselves.

But mostly, what’s changed is my perspective. I want to live life with my husband, kids and extended family and not have to take time to write about it.

God has really placed on my heart over the last couple of years the fact that I only have one life to live. I only have one shot at this parenting thing. I only have these kids in my home for such a short period of time. I only have one chance to experience this season of life with my husband. There are no do-overs. There are no guarantees of tomorrow.

So, as I live this life the Lord has given me, I realize that I don’t have to stop and write about every little bit of it. I simply don’t have time. I don’t have to blog every recipe I make with photos, a write up and a well-tested and edited recipe. Those things take a ton of time that I really don’t have. I would much rather spend that time watching my son’s or daughter’s swim practice, or help them practice piano, or spend that one hour after the kids are in bed and before I crash on the couch with my man just relaxing and watching some TV.

So, there you have it. You asked, “What’s changed?” My answer: “A lot, but mostly my perspective.”

The great tomato sauce catastrophe of 2012

I am so happy to have discovered a good farmer’s market not too far from my home.  I can get up on Saturday mornings, make the 15 minute drive and come home within an hour or so with everything from smoked chicken to pain au chocolat to fresh tomatoes and okra.

Pain au chocolat is a dark chocolate filled croissant.

In fact, it’s become such a thing this summer that pain au chocolat (or as my husband refers to it, “the breakfast of the gods”)  is our standard Saturday morning breakfast and smoked chicken and veggies from the market is our standard Saturday evening supper.  We don’t know what we’ll do once it closes for the winter months.

Several weeks ago, I went to the market and had in mind to get a bunch of tomatoes to make and can some tomato sauce.  As it happened, one of the vendors had a box full of blemished tomatoes (which we later weighed at 15 lbs) for about $5.  PERFECT!

I got my tomatoes home and later that afternoon, the kids and I got to work cutting out the bad parts and prepping them for cooking.  I used this recipe as a guide and found it all to be pretty simple.  I used my absolute biggest stock pot and even still, it almost wasn’t big enough.

The only hitch I encountered with actually making the sauce was that I didn’t have and couldn’t seem to find anywhere a food mill. But I finally came up with a solution involving a colander and a ladle that seemed to give me my desired results.

That was the only hitch.  Until….

I had placed the hot/sterilized jars on the wire cooling rack that you see in the picture.  I filled them all.  Then, one by one I picked them up to up on their lids.  All the while, not realizing that the last row of 3 full jars were on the back edge which was beyond where the foot of the cooling rack touched the baking sheet below.  SO, when I picked up the final jar in the next to last row the wire rack finally tipped sending the 3 jars in that final row spilling all over and down the back of the range.

I cleaned up the top of the range the best I could.  Then, my hubby, saint that he is, set to work the next day….

….cleaning….

…cleaning…

… and still more cleaning.

It actually took him several hours to get all the sauce cleaned out of all the nooks and crannies in, around, and behind the range. 

I love that man!

But the result?  Did I get my tomato sauce?

Why, yes.  Yes, I did.

All told, I figure I spilled about 1 1 /2 pints of tomato sauce, but the remaining 8 pints will be wonderful come winter-time when we are desperately missing the Farmer’s Market.

Darth Vader Sandwich Cookies

If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that we are pretty big Star Wars fans around here.  So it wasn’t any stretch for me to do an R2D2 birthday cake for my son two years in a row. 

Yep.  Even though I made one last year, when we decided to go play laser tag with some friends for his birthday this year, it just seemed natural that another R2D2 cake would be in order.

But what to do with it…. that was the question.  As I’ve said before, instead of goodie bags full of junk that gets thrown away, I’d much rather send the kids home with a party favor that consists of a home baked treat of some kind.  But what could I do this year, other than iced sugar cookies, with a limited amount of time?  That was the question.

So I pulled back out my Star Wars cookie cutters and I wondered to myself, “You know, I’ve always wanted to make homemade Oreos… I wonder…”

“Google,” enter stage right.

So, I found (and “Pinned”) a blog post where someone had made green tea Yoda sandwich cookies.  I showed them to Nathan to see if he would be interested.  “No,” he said, “but I do want Darth Vader ‘Oreos’.”

Well, okay then. 

With a plan in place, I set to work.

I know that Bridget at the Bake at 350 blog had made homemade Oreos before, so that was the first place I looked.  And, in fact, it was the recipe I decided to use. 

I’d say it worked out pretty well for me.

May the force be with you.  And my new 7 year old.

Cookies for an Eagle Scout Court of Honor

My oldest nephew received his Eagle Scout rank a couple of days before Christmas this last December.  Just a couple of weeks ago, we attended his court of honor as his troop leaders awarded him his pin and he, in turn, gave both of his parents a pin and also a special “Mentor Pin” to his grandfather (his mom’s and my dad).  It was an incredibly moving moment and I cried like a baby.

My sister has 4 boys and has resigned herself to the fact that she will never have the opportunity to plan a wedding for a daughter.  She decided that the reception following my nephew’s Court of Honor was about as close as she’d ever get.  It would, after all, include cake and punch. 

In addition to the cake, she wanted to have some cookies using the Boy Scout Fleur-De-Lis shape and she asked me to make them.  She had the cookie cutter, she just needed me to get them done.

So I spent a cold and rainy Saturday when we didn’t have anywhere to be making cookies.

Rather than traditional royal icing on the top, my sister requested that I use a glaze and then maybe just outline them with icing.  I think she somehow thought that this would be easier.  Personally, I think outlining and flooding with royal icing would have been just as easy, but I wanted to do what my sister wanted.  So I did a little research and this is what I found for a glaze…

Sugar Cookie Glaze

1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 tablespoons water
10 drops food coloring (if desired)

Sift confectioner’s sugar.  Whisk together confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup and water until it makes a smooth and thin paste.  Add coloring if desired. 

One tip I have read is that you should stir the glaze before each dipping, especially if using color. Otherwise it may dry with a mottled look instead of a solid color.

In theory you’re supposed to be able to dip the cookies in the glaze and set them aside to dry…

I found that dipping these particular cookies did not work well because they broke easily at some of their weaker points in the dipping process.  After just a few cookies, I loaded up one of my squeeze bottles and glazed them that way.

Then, using the #15-17 tips, I did a simple outline of the Fleur-De-Lis in both red and blue.  I was very pleased with the result.

My family was not sorry that I’d had such a problem with breakage.  Not sorry at all.

Can you tell where the weakest point was in these cookies?

And just a word of advice…. if you decide to use a glaze on your cookies and you put them on wire cooling racks so that the excess glaze can drip off, don’t use paper towels under them to keep your counter top clean.  It doesn’t work.  Instead you get paper towel and sugar cement on your counter that you have to scrape off with a bench scraper.

I’m thinking wax paper might have been a better choice here.

Since she figured that this was as close as she’d ever get to planning a wedding reception, she decided that the event required a “bride’s cake” and a “groom’s cake". 

She decorated the more formal “bride’s cake” Eagle Scout cake.

 
She had a friend decorate the “groom’s cake”.  You see, they have a lot of armadillos in their neighborhood and my nephew has a thing about shooting them.  So clearly, the other cake had to be nothing other than this…

And yes, of course it was red velvet.

Bluebonnets 2012

HOLY WOW!

The bluebonnets here in Texas are in full bloom and boy is this a banner year. 

 

The Woes of a Business Trip Widow in the 21st Century

I want to speak to you face to face, without a screen in between and a microphone that doesn’t always want to work.

I want to tell you about my day and hear about yours without worrying about how many minutes we’ve been talking and how big our cell phone bill is getting.

I want to be able to call you without having to count out the time difference in hours to make sure you might still be awake.

I want to text you when you’re just down the hall and I’m too lazy to get up, instead of when you’re thousands of miles away and across an ocean.

I want to be able to fall asleep at night knowing you’re just in the other room and coming to bed soon.

But most of all, I want to have your arms around me, to have your lips touching mine, and to never ever let you go again.

I wish I still enjoyed your occasional business trips like I used to.

I really do.

But I don't.

I miss you, baby.

A little Monday comedic relief

For your comedic enjoyment, this came home in my son’s weekly work folder from school last week:

My husband said that it would have only been better if there had been some fire coming out of the back of the snowman.

Boys.

Christmas Genealogy Paper Chain

I’ll bet you didn’t know that my husband and I teach 1st and 2nd graders on Sunday mornings.

Yep.  Last year we taught along with another friend, but he moved up to another class and this year, we’re on our own.  Which has been a little challenging to say the least as our average class size has doubled since last year.  We went from averaging about 8 each Sunday morning last year to averaging about 16 each Sunday morning this year.  To the elementary school teachers out there, 16 may seem like a cake walk… but we’re not talking about school.  Sunday School is a whole different animal and, admittedly, I am not a teacher by training, vocation or gifting.  So to us, 16-18 each week is HUGE. 

But I digress.

One of the things we enjoy doing with our class is a “Genealogy of Christ Paper Chain.”  We find it to be a really good teaching tool to talk about Messianic prophesy on a level that 1st and 2nd graders can comprehend and the links of the chain act as a visual to link together the old and new testaments of the Bible.

I thought my husband was very creative with the lesson portion of the morning.  He started out by talking about the Old Testament and the New Testament and the difference being that the Old was before Jesus lived on earth and the New was during and after Jesus.  Then he began reading some scriptures and asked the kids if they knew whether it came from the OT or NT and began to work in some scriptures of Messianic prophesy.  He quoted Micah 5:2 which talks about Bethlehem among others which refer to Christ to try to trip them up a little and make them think he was reading from the New Testament so that it would be a surprise that it came from the Old.  Once we were able to establish with the kids that the Bible talks about Jesus in the OT, we were able to talk about how the promise of the Messiah was made all the way back in Genesis and we began to read prophesies about the family that the Messiah would come from all the way back to Abraham.

We know that the details of our lesson probably did not all stick.  But we don’t expect them to.  If those 16 kids walked away from our class knowing that the Bible talks about Jesus in the Old Testament all the way back to Genesis, then we’ve accomplished our goal, in my opinion.

So, back to the genealogy chain… in pictures, here’s what we did:

For our class, I pre-printed all the names from the Matthew 1 genealogy of Christ on colored strips of paper.  Older kids could write them down themselves.  And the Luke 3 genealogy from Adam to Jesus could be used as well.

Because I have to have things very organized for our group of 1st & 2nd graders, I put all the names in order with Jesus on bottom and Abraham on top.  I put them in sandwich baggies as shown below so that after starting with Abraham, each child could just take the next strip of paper with the next name on it out of the bag and the rest would remain in the bag and in order.  The links of the chain may be fastened with staplers or with tape.

Now, when you have 16 1st and 2nd graders working on such a project, there is absolutely no time whatsoever for pictures to be taken.  But with two kids working on it at home, it was a fairly peaceful affair.

 
And when they’re done…

I don’t know about you, but I’m always looking for a fun way to bring my family and especially my kids back to what we are truly celebrating at Christmas time… the birth of Christ.  I hope that this is an idea that might help some of you in your endeavors to do the same thing. 

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Butter. Just like the Pilgrims?

Well, maybe not *just* like the pilgrims did it, but homemade butter nonetheless.

Our school has a tradition in each grade.  My son is in 1st grade this year and the big tradition for them is the Thanksgiving celebration and feast.  During the party portion of the day, also known as the whole first half of the day, the kids are split into small groups and they rotate from station to station.  These stations include teepee stories, snacks, bracelet making, necklace making (of the macaroni variety), bows and arrows (as we pray against any impalements) and finally butter making.

Which is where I come in.  Because, you know, I’m an expert on making butter.

Or not.

Regardless, it was certainly fun.  And exhausting.

But more about that later.

You may be wondering how on earth one might make homemade butter.  Well guess what… we’re just going to subtitle this post here today as “Butter Making 101” and I’ll try to give you a lesson.

Start with clean baby food jars.  I know that the lids aren’t on these, but you need the lids.

Fill them about half way up with heavy cream.

You may add a little salt if desired.  Then tightly screw on the lid.

When you are doing 46 of these for your son’s entire first grade at school, it will look something like this:

And finally, begin to shake.

Your child will start out very excited to be on this journey of making his or her own butter.  They will smile and giggle as they shake. 

Your child might even break out into song.  Like:

“Shake – Shake - Shake!

Shake – Shake - Shake!

Shake your butter!

Shake your butter!” 

Or:

“You know you make me want to shake! 

Kick my heels up and shake!

Throw my hands up and shake!

Throw my head back and shake!”

Things will be all nice and rosy until about two minutes later and the children all of the sudden wilt into little moaning whining puddles that used to resemble happy children as they complain and ask, “Is it done YET?”

That’s where your big strapping arms come in. 

Yeah, I know.

So as you shake, at first you clearly hear the liquid sloshing around.  Keep shaking.  Then you hear less and less and the jar is completely white and you can’t see a thing in there. Keep shaking. Then all of the sudden, you will clearly be able to see in the jar and it will look like a single mushy mass. Keep shaking just a little more. Then that single mushy mass will separate and become a butter ball and buttermilk.

Now before I began this project today, someone told me to keep the cream cold and that it would work better if the cream was cold.  These kids and the adults helping to chaperone them (okay, more the adults than the kids if I’m honest) shook these little jars for 10-13 minutes.

A different someone during the day said that they thought it would work better if the cream were more at room temperature.  So that got me to wondering.  And I did a very scientific experiment. 

I left a jar out on our countertop for a little while (that’s a very specific and scientific measurement of time, right there).  Then set the timer as my daughter shook it up.  It took her 3 minutes flat.

I think I’d be going with closer to room temperature if I ever did this again.  Because after two and a half hours of shaking cream into butter for a bunch of soft 1st graders who couldn’t shake their jars more than 1 1/2 minutes, my arms were killing me.  I mean, who needs a Shake Weight when there’s baby food jar butter to be made?

I left the school, went home, immediately took some Advil, put huge ice packs on my arms and began looking into cryotherapy. 

(As of this writing, it is in the evening of the same day and I have warned my husband that I do not intend to lift a single thing tomorrow.)

Let me give you just a little piece of advice.  If your son’s first grade teacher asks you to be in charge of the butter making station for the Thanksgiving celebration, just politely say no.  Your arms will thank you for it later.

In all seriousness, it was a blast and I really enjoyed getting to impart a little bit of food science to them as I tried to describe the butter making process on a 1st grade level.

If you have some cream and a small jar around, I suggest trying this with your child some time.  They might just appreciate that butter that they use on their toast or corn on the cob just a little more if they know how it’s made.

 

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STS135 – Godspeed Atlantis

We went on a little trip last week and I still can’t believe we got to be there.

And I got to experience it with some very special people.