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That's what I'm doing, ayup. Stealing peaceful minutes while the family naps on this Saturday afternoon, this Last Saturday of Peace before football. We purposely planned to do nothing at all this weekend, but of course we're harried anyway with the business of life.
Maggie's birthday party was lots of fun. The kids all played, the band was great (it was at the park, where they have music on Friday nights), we met some new fun people, and a good time was had by all. Despite cookies, cake, ice cream, and a general overload on sugary treats, Pookie conked out on my shoulder around 8:30. We woke her up at home just long enough to brush her teeth.
The birthday girl, Maggie, getting ready to blow out her candles:
The cookies were a hit, by the way, and several people even asked if I owned a bakery. That is high praise indeed! (And it has gotten me thinking, which is always dangerous)
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I don't recall if I've blogged about it before, but one of my very favorite things about living here is going to the Watauga County Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. We get up, throw some clothes on (no makeup or fuss, it's not that kind of scene), and head over as soon as we're conscious. We stock up on basics (squash, tomatoes, eggs), find new ingredients and recipes (rainbow chard wrapped around fresh mint tabouli), and catch up with fellow Boonies. We go there for the cameraderie as much as we do to support the local farmers and get wonderful food. There's just something quaint and wholesome and refreshing about the experience we love, some intangible thing that makes us sad when we have to miss it (as we will next week).
The above photo shows today's haul of fresh basil, chard, onions, squash, potatoes, apples and zucchini. The pineapple came from elsewhere (what, you're shocked that they don't grow in the mountains?). Below is a bouquet of sunflowers from the market. They make me smile, which is well worth the $3.
When we got home and everyone else retired to their naps I spent time destressing by cleaning and organizing the kitchen. There is something about having everything in its place in that one room that centers me. Something about having the spice jars clean and ready, in just the right place (turmeric and garlic front and center, tartar and ginger relegated to the back) to grab when I need them. Something that makes me smile to see the low-sodium soy sauces side-by-side, Kikkoman for DJ and La Choy for me. Marriages are about compromise, but this is not an area where we will ever agree, so there they both are, seperate but equally important to our household.
The dishes are all done and put away in order, not haphazardly stowed like they will be later, when football/work/class are in full swing. The cookie cutters and mixer parts have been carefully handwashed and packed up, ready for the next project. The floor is freshly mopped (Shark for the win!), peppermint oil on cotton balls has been discretely tucked away under cabinets (to distract any curious mice who might be in search of a winter home). (note: so handy that what mice think smells so bad smells delicious to humans. Also, thanks for the tip, Sarah!)
These things all center me, enabling me to not shudder at the thought of all that is coming at us, fast. In an hour everyone will be awake, the house abuzz with noise and activity, and likely the kitchen will again be a wreck. And Monday I start class (I WILL finish this damn master's degree if it kills me), Saturday we start The Season, and work and toddler and life is all in between.
But for now all is in its place, and the restful silence is beautiful.
Frustrated by my failboat full of attempts to photograph the ladybug swarm, I packed them up and brought them into work with me. With much assistance from BlueRidgeBlog, I managed to get a much more pleasing set of pictures. (Have I ever mentioned her high degree of awesomeness? Because it is up there, like 99th percentile).
There is a gallery over there --->>>> with some more pics.
(Normally, I would have been satisfied with my crappy photos, but I've recently discovered this amazing food blog, and I was feeling very outgunned, both photographically and bakertistically. That spectrum cake almost made me weep, it was so beautiful.)
(That title is a really lame Evil Dead nod, but it is 2am. I'm too tired to be witty. Sorry.)
So I iced the cookies tonight, and took photos of the whole thing, and the pics mysteriously disappeared. I am quite annoyed, and also concerned that this CF card is on its way out. That's a pisser, it's practically new. Grr.
I took a few more shots just now (but I can't tell how off the color is - my screen needs calibration badly), although not as illustrative and cool as the first batch, and here is the completed garden of ladybugs and flowers for Miss Maggie on the Occasion of Her Second Birthday:
In honor of our quickly-approaching autumn, there are black-eyes susans, daisies, and of course sunflowers, all bedecked with our friendly fondant ladybugs. There are also 2 more types of ladybugs, made form heart-shaped cookies fashioned together with a goodly amount of royal icing.
The sunflowers are my favorite - it doesn't come across in this second, craptastic batch of photos, but there are actual petals painted on the sunflowers is darker orange. It was a nice touch, and they look really nice - the "seeds" are chocolate buttercream icing. yum yum.
I think my favorite part of the whole is the little guy hanging out on the big bug "2":
The largest are about 3 inches around (the big "2" is 6 inches high), and the smallest are slightly larger than a half-dollar (which I didn't have lying around, so here is a comparison to 1/50 of a half dollar:)
Hopefully Maggie will like them. I may try my hand at getting better photos (again!) tomorrow. I'm just too beat to try it right now - it would only lead to frustration with an otherwise charming and painless project.
Back from vacation - it was fun, I missed the kiddo, I'm glad we're home (but not looking particularly forward to another football season yet). I'd post all about it, but really it was 5 days sitting on my butt in or around the Caribbean while sipping mojitos, snorkeling, and reading the fifth Outlander book. Not much else to say.
But we're back to reality now, trying to navigate the choppy waters of parenthood, ASU students returning to school and gridlocking the whole western part of the state, me attempting to finally finish my damn graduate degree, and us all bracing for the inevitable impact of Football Season. (I'm sure that will be addressed in another post.)
But tonight. Ah, tonight.
My friend invited us to her daughter's 2nd birthday party on Friday. I offered to bring something and she waved me off, "No, no, just come. It's a ladybug theme, I'll get the bakery to do something." When I asked again she said if I really wanted to do something I could make cookies. So yeah, cookies. No problem-o. Who doesn't love sugar cookies? They're quick and easy!
So tonight during post-dinner playtime we were sculpting in play-doh, and I thought,"I could make ladybugs out of this for Magster's party, but they'd taste narsty." But THEN I remembered that I had some leftover fondant from Octocake. I got it out and worked in some food dye, and Pookie and I sat at the table, fashioning little red balls, approximately 2x the size of real ladybugs. Fun, fun.
After she went to bed, though, things got a bit Out of Hand. I made them little heads. Then I used chocolate sprinkles for antennae and poked those into the heads, then used my trusty exacto knife to carve the wings out a bit, and then painted them with black food dye.
By the time the double batch of sugar cookies (cut into flowers, hearts, and the letters in the birthday girl's name) were out of the oven I had an army, a swarm, a plague of these little edible red and black bugs. They go forth and cause people to have diabetes at my bidding, so beware.
Also, I'm fairly sure my friend is going to think me daft. I don't think we've been friends long enough for her to know that to me "ridiculously time-consuming and intricate bug-making in gum paste" translates to "fairly normal wednesday evening" to me.
Most importantly, of course, I want Maggie to love them. (She is the sweetest, most adorable child - she looks like a little wood sprite, a dryad perhaps. I'll have to ask her mom's permission to post her photo so you can see how beautiful she is) And apparently she has a great love for bugs and worms and creepy-crawlies. I hope mine pass muster!
You probably thought to yourself, "Hey, Gnumoon is on vacation. She might be posting some gorgeous photographs of the islands. I think I'll check out her site." Well, I'm not one to oblige, so here instead is a confusing area of the hotel that may OR MAY NOT be a designated storage closet.
The office was invaded by 11 babies hammies this week, and one very tired mommy who blazed through a whole bag of food, a pattypan squash and some strawberries trying to keep her ravenous brood nursed. She finally just taught them how to eat the food themselves, and retreated to the running wheel to take a nap.
You could practically hear Grundle rolling his eyes at the silliness. He is unamused:
(Follow-up: remember how I was going to do the Callanetics every night and report back? Yeah, about that ... I totally skipped it last night because BlueRidgeBlog and another friend made me run with them and it practically killed me. I could barely move last night, much less work out. I plan to give it a go tonight after I this post and a few cups of coffee. "Coffee: Gatorade for lazy, unathletic people.")
So yesterday I posted a recipe for cookies, and someone asked me why there wasn't any white flour in them. I'll fess up: I've cut out white flour for my family, except on special occasions. It offers no nutritional benefits, it's bleached all to hell and there isn't any reason to use it for most things. Now I'm not saying that I'm one of these people who tries to make birthday cakes out of wheat flour and applesauce and dirt and pass it off as the Real Thing. No, you know me and my confections: it's the Real Thing or nothing. But for everyday use? Wheat flour or other alternatives offer nutritious and interesting results. *The line to call me a Crunchy Earth Mama Hippie forms to the right.
One thing Pookie loves is pizza. Most kids (heck, most people) love pizza. Specifically she loves Mellow Mushroom house pesto, but in a pinch any pie will do. So I experimented with lots of different things. Bought store dough (too HCFC-y!), made regular dough (too time-consuming, flour-y), made whole wheat dough (too wheat-y!), nothing worked. But then I found a recipe that combines wheat flour and unbleached flour in the proper ratios to be healthy and yummy. This isn't my recipe (although I've tweaked it some), and I found it online, but I've had it for a while now and I cannot remember where it came from.
Here 'tis:
Note: A stand mixer is important, one with a dough hook. Otherwise it makes the "quick preparing" part
a big lie. You can have my Kitchenaid when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached)
1 pkg. active yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (you can omit this)
1 tsbp oregano (you can omit if you hate oregano)
1 tbsp garlic powder (you can omit if you hate, or add fresh chopped if you love)
3/4 cup HOT water (I usually nuke it for a minute)
1 tbsp olive oil
Mix the flours, yeast, salt, sugar, oregano and garlic. Mix the oil into the hot water and pour it into the flour mixture with the mixer running on low. When it forms a warm ball, continue to knead for about another minute.
Remove the dough to a floured surface and split it in half (skip the halving if you like an extra thick crust, otherwise this is enough dough for 2 pizzas). Cover the dough in plastic wrap you've sprayed with cooking spray for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 500.
While the dough is rising I prepare the topping. You can put anything on this of course, but I usually default to 93/7 ground turkey (or TVP if I don't have any turkey handy - no one ever notices the difference), chopped onion, stoplight pepper slices, mushrooms, and marinara sauce. I sautee them together in a bit of olive oil and use half for each pizza.
(Pesto sauce is a nice alternative to marinara - try making it with spinach, almonds and garlic for a lighter, healthier version. I'm making myself hungry writing this out.)
Take half the dough (mmm, warm) and roll it out onto a floured pizza stone (or use your hands to stretch it for the pizzeria experience), then put half the topping mixture on it. Sprinkle with as much, and whatever kind, of cheese you wish. Pookie helps with this part, so our cheese distribution is decidedly uneven. Then I let her shake on more oregano and long bits of parmesan.
Pop it into the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the crust is crispy and darkening. If it isn't cooked enought it will taste rather wheaty and yeasty.
Make the 2nd pizza immediately, or wrap it in the plastic and refrigerate for tomorrow's dinner.
I love this recipe because in 30 minutes you knock out healthy, homemade dinners for 2 nights. I work full-time, so I prefer to dedicate as much hometime as I possible to being with Pookie. Yeah, yeah, she's in daycare. *The line to call me a Detached Yuppie Asshole forms to the left. (The first people in the Yuppie line and the Hippie line have to leg wrestle each other to determine the flavor of my "Bad parenting" label)
For Pooks I just cut it into small pieces and let her have at it. For adults you can pair it with a nice baby spinach salad with a vinaigrette dressing, cranberries, almonds and feta and a glass or two of vino and it can pass as a "gourmet" pizza (even though it's rather thrown together). I think of it as the shabby chic of easy dinners.
