Adventures in Living!

A minor achievement in coffee

This morning began, as usual, early. Noah feels compelled to get up before dawn some days, and this day was no exception. I refrained from allowing him to get me out of bed at 4:30, though, so I have been listening to him fuss and sing for two hours. Now, finally, he is up and running around the house, playing and chattering away. Even though I'd much rather be in bed, I love watching him explore his world.

Of course, being up this early means that I require coffee. Usually Noah "helps" with that, putting scoops of beans into the grinder and then pressing the button to grind the coffee. Not today! I have been on a quest for a good iced coffee recipe, since I adore Starbucks frappucinos so much and am trying to reduce my nonessential expenditures (and excessive calorie consumption!). I figured it would be nice to be able to make 'real' iced coffee whenever I want, instead of just waiting for my cup to get cold and then throwing some ice cubes in it.

Quick! To the internet!

A Google search brought me many options, and the one I'd never considered before turns out to be the key: cold-brewing! Never even thought of it. Here is the recipe I used, which makes a boatload of concentrate, probably way more than I need at this point, but, heck it was a first experiment. I did alter things a little, and basicaly, because I didn't have a pound of coffee already ground, I combined about 12oz of Dunkin Donuts ground hazlenut coffee and about 6oz ground chicory coffee that had been languishing in the cupboard. Throw it in a container with about 3 and a half quarts of water, wait about 12-16 hours, et voila! Cold-brewed coffee concentrate. Well, you ahve to strain out the grounds first.

Straining the mix was the difficult part, and I definitely need a glass container or pitcher for the resulting brew, as it is staining my plastic milk jug horribly.

Mix about a cup of the brew with about three-quarters cup of milk, a splash of cream and maybe some chocolate syrup, stir and throw in ice cubes. That's it.

YUM.

I love my friends

Aside from the fact that my friends are totally cool, pretty much ALL of them are supremely talented in one way or another. Among my friends I have jewelers, metal artists, glass artists, costumers, quilters, knitters, fantastic cooks, leatherworkers, writers, visual artists, and bakers.

This Sunday was all about the cake decorator, though. A friend and I threw a baby shower for another friend expecting her first child in August. We did all the food for the party,save for the cake. Our pregnant friend's sister is a professional baker and cake decorator, and we relied on ehr to make the cake. No way was I going to make a cake (something I do like to do, but am nowhere near trained to do) when Lynnze could do it so much better! This was the cake:
Isn't that amazing?? She did it all...baked the lemon poppyseed cake, and did all the sculpting and decorating. Granted, she does it professionally, but STILL....so amazing. I always love seeing her creations. Here is a detail shot of the baby:

And this is the side of the cake:

The detail was really incredible, and the cake was so delicious! I know everyone loved it.

This is definitely NOT a candidate for Cake Wrecks! Well, maybe for the Sunday Sweets entry....this cake is totally terrific!

Today was incredibly HOT and HUMID, typical summer-in-Richmond fashion. It was fantastic to see so many friends we don't get to see very often anymore, and I had a good time. A sweet way to end the week.

Spring Break -- The Wrapup -- and Easter Sunday

So, the last days of spring break revolved around Easter prep. We dyed eggs, and then we made bunny cookies.

<rant digression>

Before I go any further, let me just say that having refrigerated cookie dough is a nice convenience when you have very small children. It's great to be able to skip ahead to the putting dough on the cookie sheet part of baking, and have cookies hot out of the oven in a short space of time. Little ones aren't usually possessing of the patience required for baking. It's also nice that you can buy the cookie dough with designs already in the dough, like millefiori, for holidays .

That being said, about ten years ago, if you wanted these premade doughs, you purchased them in a cardboard tube in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. You would then take the tube home and slice the cookies and then bake them. These days, you take home a plastic-wrapped package that contains a few dozen little chunks of dough, and all you have to do it flip them onto a cookie sheet.

I know that this does not even come close to from-scratch baking like I prefer to do, but I think people can handle cutting a log of dough into slices. Have we fallen so far in our advanced society that we cannot even bring ourselves to slice premade dough anymore? Do we have to have every darn thing already done for us? Can we not take pleasure in at least the simple act of cutting round slices off a log of cold sugar dough, making them as thin or as thick as you wanted, and then arranging them on the cookie sheet?

Sigh.


I guess not.

It's not going to stop me from buying the dough, but I sure am gonna b*!tch about it a little. :)

</rant digression>

Ok, so back to Easter....the little kids made bunny cookies.

 
  See what I mean?? I used ot be able to decorate the sliced cookies first, but these? Too small. Arg.

Anyway, Wren and Noah had fun. And cookies, too, after they were baked (the cookies, not the kids).

Then, bedtime. AFter which the Easter Bunny made his(her) appearance.
  For the record, Kira (who is ten) still believes. And I am good with that.

We had planned on going to church, but illness forces conspired against us. Instead, I made cinnamon rolls and we ate too much. It was sort of a non-holiday. I think we had hot dogs for supper.

This week, the kids have all resumed their normal schedules. Hooray!
I am working on gardens, and regaining my sanity, just in time to lose it again next week when Travis is out of town.

Hapy weekend to everybody! I will be gardening like a madwoman, going to a craft show, and soaking up as much of the blissful sunshine as I can. Hope you are too!

Spring Break, Part 2 -- Groovin' in the Garden!

Check it out! We have seedlings!!

Yes, indeed, the Brandel Family Victory Garden is sprouting radishes! I love radishes, so I am jazzed. They only take about 21 days to mature, so this is right on schedule. We also now have lettuce and chard sprouting, but the seedlings don't photograph well at this point. Still too small.

So far, in our newly turned bit of earth, we have radishes, lettuce, spinach, chard, carrots and peas all in the ground. In another week, I'll succession-plant more radishes, another round of lettuce, and another row of peas. After that will come all the other goodies: beans, squash, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes, and three kinds of basil, parsley, rosemary, lavender, more nasturtiums and maybe some flowers of unknown type.

In other spring break related news, it was Travis' birthday, so I made him a cake!
Carrot, with homemade cream cheese frosting. MMMmmmm! (and this cake SO better not show up on Cake Wrecks!!)

And my lovable, if crazy, family adored it.

And then we all went out to play in the sunshine!

I think I hear that cake calling my name....maybe just a little piece...ok, maybe a little more than that...ok, I need to get away from the kitchen.

Next on tap, freezing in the park, and why you shouldn't let your 16month old near the toaster.

Channeling the 50's

Now I know why women wore aprons back in the day. By 10:30 this morning, I was covered with snot, blood, cookie dough, tears, and egg white. MMmmmmm!

I baked 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies for our church's spring festival tomorrow, with assistance from my little helpers. One of my little helpers (Noah) fell off the kitchen table and bruised his little chin, and was rewarded with a mouthful of blood where his teeth went through his lip. He's fine, but I had to change my shirt.

The little sneak kept dragging a kitchen chair over to the counter where the cookie sheets were and snagging the raw mounds of dough before they would go into the oven! I would have scolded him if he weren't so cute....alas, I did not take a picture. :(

We accomplished a trip to the Children's Museum of Richmond, hereafter known by Wren as the 'Chuseum'. Both kids took naps this afternoon! Pardon me for a moment....

**happy dance happy dance!!**

Ahem....okay, so they both napped, and I took the opportunity to surf the internet, read a book, and dye my hair....a normal color, not something outrageous like I wanted to.....and then I had a beautiful drive up and back dropping Kira off at her dad's.

Now I am home, there is a Blue Moon waiting for me in the fridge, and Supernatural DVR'd on the TV. Bliss.

I think I might draft myself an apron pattern this weekend....

Lots of crafty goodness!

So, yesterday I did my first public demo of lampworking at the ArtWorks Gallery here in Richmond. It went really well, and I had a decent number of people attend the 45-minute workshop. About the only things that didn't go the way I would have liked was the fact that my new sparklighter failed to light my torch, and I had to borrow a barbecue lighter from the gallery owner, and I was sitting a little higher than I usually do to work, and couldn't rest my elbows on the table like I usually do. Shaky hands make for imprecise bead decorating.

Oh, the beads. I think I made some of the crappiest beads I have made in a while while doing that demo. Out of practice. My bulk tank was empty and I haven't made beads for a few weeks. We got the tank filled on Saturday, so I should be remedying that situation this week.

What else?

Been doing some more sewing....Kira has been reading devouring books from the Warriors series. It thrills me to no end that she is obsessed with reading at the moment, so I am doing all I can to encourage that habit. I made her some fabric books covers for her books, and she loved them.

The outsides....actually, I made the one at the far left for me....now I need a book to put it on...
And the insides. It's a great quick little project that doesn't even use a whole fat quarter, which is nice.
I've also been doing some baking....bread, this time...honey-wheat...
MMmmmmm...there's another couple loaves in the oven right now.....

And Kira and I started a new weekly tradition...Kira and Mom Night! This past week was for origami, which Kira is insanely good at. Here's the proof...
Folding.....folding....

Ok, so we cheated a little bit and use a Flash animated folding guide for some of the more difficult ones. Some of those diagrams are impossible to figure out! (for me, anyway, Kira nails it most of the time)

The crane gave both of us fits!

But, then we ended up with these, which was fantastic!
It was a really fun evening! We laughed a lot, and Kira told me how much fun she had about twelve times on Friday. This week's evening is going to be a Movie Night, I think. Gotta remember the popcorn!

I've worked some more on The Skirt, but I haven't photographed it yet (so yo'll have to wait!). It's sort of at a slow spot now, while I ponder it some more and design the buttons for it.

Ok, time for the bread to go in the oven, and to enjoy a cup of tea and some blessed, blessed silence before Kira gets home and the little ones get up. I think Wren must be getting sick or something....she is actually, no-shit, honest-to-God asleep upstairs. I can't remember the last time she had a nap.

I so needed her to have a nap today.

Making Soft Pretzels with Preschoolers

So, last week, the little kids and I made a batch of soft pretzels. It's an easy recipe, and the dough is not difficult to work with, so it is perfects for the munchkins to help with. I mean, "help" with.

Right. It was fun, though. And someday, I will be glad that I have this picture of Wren's hand with mine.

And of course, Noah is growing into a little ham for the camera.

He was happy playing with the dough, although Wren and I were the ones to actually shape the pretzels.

We got them all shaped and ready for their therapeutic baking soda boiling bath...
Then they got wash of egg yolk and a dusting of pretzel salt....

And finally, they baked for a short time in a very hot oven. Look at how fantastic they are! The perfect color, with plenty of salt and a shiny crust....yum!

Wait, this photo doesn't do it justice....let me give you a close-up so you can truly appreciate the goodness that is a perfect soft pretzel...
Now, doesn't that make you drool? I swear, these pretzels are the absolute best I have ever eaten, and I have eaten many soft pretzels. It's always a miracle that I don't eat the entire batch myself when I make them.
I bow down and worship at the Church of Alton Brown for this recipe. (It's available on the Food Network webpage here.)

Now get the recipe and go make your own!

Science is a pizza cake!

Kira's fifth-grade teacher is a relatively new teacher -- Kira had her as a student teacher two years ago -- and one of the great things about new teachers is their enthusiasm and creativity. Kira's class has done quite a few projects in all subject areas, and the most recent was for science. They have been studying animal and plant cells, comparing and contrasting them, learning the names and functions of the various pieces and parts. Last week, Kira brought home a project assignment to choose either an animal or plant cell and make an edible model.

Woot! Food! Right up our alley! Kira chose an animal cell, and we brainstormed for a few days on what we could make. Cake? Cookies? A big quesadilla?

How about a pizza? YES!

The crust formed the cell membrane, with pesto and mozzarella as the cytoplasm. I suggested big slices of ham for vacuoles, but Kira deferred to pepperoni, king of all pizza meats. Black olive halves made good mitochondria, and some leftover bacon was cut with a biscuit cutter to make the nucleus. I had suggested my personal favorite, strips of banana peppers, as the chromosomes, but I was vetoed. Chunks of cheddar cheese melted into the perfect representations of genetic material.

I had made calzones earlier in the week, so I had a piece of leftover dough. Kira did all the shaping and topping, and we baked it on my pizza stone. The whole thing fit into my round cake carrier, after a bit of crust trimming, and she proudly carried it to school.

I was a bit concerned when she brought the project home on the bus with her that afternoon, because usually, projects stay at school for a week or so. I guess the edibility factor weighed heavily in favor of a quick grading and a speedy return home. She got 100% on it, and ate it for lunch the next day.

I finally finished putting together my sewing area in the office! Ta-Daaa! Here is the working corner...two machines at the ready, and the third in it's protective cover in reserve:

I absolutely love my shelving...the boxes hold all my notions, and the glass canning jars are perfect for a rainbow assortment of my thread. Of course I arranged it in rainbow order!

The inside of my supply closet.....messy, yes, but I was surprised how much stuff I could get in there....ironing and cutting boards, yardsticks and rulers, the iron, all manner of scrap and remnant fabric...wow!
 
Of course, since this has all been done, I haven't had any time to get in there and make stuff. Such is the way of life. But it's there and ready for me, so hopefully this weekend will bring me some creative time.

I was supposed to do some sewing today, but.....now one of the cats is sick and needed a vet appointment. Sigh.

And my recent foray into online shopping brought these two gems to my house....I have been dying to delve into them, but haven't had time yet!

Homemade mozzerella...mmmmm! Cupcakes!

Must go be domestic now. Today's project is this, from Bakerella.  Not red velvet, though, plain yellow. I might keep them a secret from my family and save them for a Valentine's Day treat. We'll see.