Adventures in Living!

We Love Halloween!

I was not impressed with the hot, sticky weather we had, but Halloween at the Brandel household was  terrific !

Friday night, we carved three massive pumpkins...

 

 

 

 

RAAAAWR!!!  (Wren is so awesome...)

Noah says "Raawr!" too!

Halloween Night...spooky dinner...Mummy Hot Dogs....Monster Face salad...and a glass of sparkling green Monster Juice to drink!

Getting ready....everyone gets glow sticks and glow bracelets.

Going out....the bat, the Tinkerbell, and Professor McGonagal (from Harry Potter).

At the neighbor's house....."Trick or Treat!!"

The kids had a blast! It was unseasonably hot and humid, which reminded me of Halloween nights in Miami. Travis and I were sweating by the time we got done. The kids were great; polite, cooperative, and everyone had fun. There was one fantastic house that was totally done up with spooky decorations and a fog machine and a scream soundtrack. Wren was a little unsure, but Noah just marched right in with Kira. We have to spend more time decorating our yard next year. I definitely want at least one inflatable things, and to put some ghosts and some lights up in the trees. I think we might need a spooky graveyard, too. 

Kids are in bed now, lights are off, and I am trying to stay away from the unsupervised pumpkin buckets full of candy. We'd set a big bowl of candy on the porch before we left, only to come back home to find someone had stolen it! Low-rent jerks! Ah, well, it IS trick OR treat, right? I can get another bowl next year.

I think I will also avoid getting started on my yearly Halloween rant about the people who DRIVE their kids from house to house for trick or treating. I could understand it if the houses were a quarter-mile apart, but this is suburbia! Sigh...you walk, or you don't go. That's how it should be. (well, unless you're two, then you can ride in the wagon)

Anyway.

I love Halloween. We had a great time! Hope everyone got lots of candy, got scared if they wanted to, and had the best costume ever!

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.

The Best Mother's Day ever!!

Seriously, today was probably the best Mother's Day I have ever had in nearly eleven years of parenting. What a great day and a superb weekend!

Saturday, we did our weekly farmer's market run, picked up our CSA allotment of veggies, got some sinful cinnamon rolls and whoopie pies, and then checked out a new market in the area that I hopefully will be selling my glass at. We made a stop at the pediatrician's office to find out if Noah had an ear infection (he doesn't), and then back home for lunch and naptime. During the kids' nap, I knocked out about 19 of the daisy beads I have to make for a custom order, and roasted in the heat and humidity. Wren got to go over and play at the Elkins' house for a while, and when Noah woke up, we joined her there for dinner.

After dinner, playing, and bundling the kids off to bed, Travis and I watched Prince Caspian. I was surprised how good of a movie that was. Now I have to read the Chronicles of Narnia again. It's probably been a good twenty years or more since I read it.

Sunday, all I wanted for Mother's Day was breakfast at my favorite buffet, Joe's Inn in Bon Air. It's so popular that even when it's not a holiday, it's best to get there a few minutes before they open. It was yummy and worth the wait. I always get a plate of fruit and Belgian waffles covered in real butter and whipped cream. MMmmmmmm!  The weather was so fantastic that just going home after breakfast would have been a waste of a day. We went to Maymont Park to let the kids run themselves silly.

Maymont is a Gilded Age mansion and 100 -acre grounds in Richmond. It's beautiful, and HUGE. There's a Children's Barn with lots of animals, some wildlife that is being rehabilitated, and bears! We always have a good time there.

We started at the Children's Barn.

Wren got acquainted with a goat.

Noah learned about goats, too.

Then we found a large expanse of grass and we RAN!

"Look! There's Daddy!"

On our way back to the car, I checked out Maymont's vegetable garden, and got ideas I plan to steal for next year's garden.

Home in the afternoon for naps, then, and I decided to take myself out for a walk. The James River is high these days, what with all the rain we've been getting, and I really wanted to walk down by the rapids at Pony Pasture.  It was beautiful, sunny, breezy and not at all humid. The trails there are wide and flat, and there are a bunch of spur trails that make for fun exploring. I am definitely bringing my mountain bike back there this week to ride.

I didn't take my camera, so no pictures, but take my word for it, it was amazing.  The river was actually closed to general activities because it was high, so no swimming. I walked the 2.5 mile trail, and then found a seat on a huge rock with a good view of the upper rapids and just relaxed in the breeze.

We ended the day with huge cheeseburgers and milkshakes from Cheeburger Cheeburger, and a road trip on the scenic route to pick up Kira. The kids watched movies and Travis and I looked at all the gorgeous farms along the way.

Now the kids are all in bed, and I am headed there myself, soon. I'm happy to have had such a great day. I love my family so much!

And a salad as big as your head......

I made our first trip to the weekly market this past Thursday, to pick up our first share of the season from the CSA we belong to. It's early in the season, so mostly salad vegetables are available. I had been craving a really fresh salad, so once I got home with the veggies, I made a humungous salad.
Fresh mixed leaf lettuces, radishes, carrots, crisp raw asparagus, spring onions, black olives, bulghur wheat, crumbled feta cheese, and a yummy vinaigrette. If I'd had a bigger bowl, the salad would have been bigger.

Yum.

I love spring.

Happy Day

Yesterday, I celebrated the last birthday I will have that starts with the word 'thirty'.

Yikes.

It was a truly fantastic day, filled with sunshine and good stuff, and my three kids. After I dropped everybody off at their respective schools, I had to go into work for an hour or so to go to a meeting (boo!). Of course I wore a cute summer skirt because I thought it was going to be much warmer than it actually was....wardrobe fail! No matter, there were jeans for after work.

This week is Historic Garden Week in Virginia, and Wednesday was the open house tour for an area of historic homes near where we live. It's called Bon Air, was once a resort town, and it has many, many surviving examples of Victorian-era architecture and decoration. Most of the people who live in the old homes do a great job of restoring them, and making gardens with a nod to period practices. There is this one house that I drive by nearly every day, the Hazen House, that I adore. 

(Photo from the Midlothian Exchange)

It's huge, and Travis and I actually saw the inside of it with a realtor about seven years ago. Oh I loved that house! But at the time, it was a crumbling wreck, needed extensive restoration and was basically unliveable. Also it cost a quarter of a million dollars. Out of our price range on all fronts.

Anyway, I saw in the paper earlier in the week that the Hazen House was going to be open for tours. I decided that would be a present to myself, so after work, I rushed over there and got tickets for that house and for the Withers House, another one fo my favorites. I didn't have near as much time as I wanted to wander around because I had to pick up the little ones from school, but I managed to see both houses and still had a little time left over. The houses were spectacular! The period details and the restoration and decorating were phenomenal! I wish I had interior pictures, but no photography was allowed. Bummer.

I'm just glad I got to see that house on the inside. I remember what it looked like as a wreck, and now it is just so beautiful...oh, I hope I have as beautiful a house someday.

The rest of my birthday was pretty darn good, too. I actually took all three kids out by myself for dinner at Red Robin. This is a major undertaking, as sometimes both Travis and I together have a hard time handling just two of the kids in a restaurant. I sweated the decision a little bit, but ultimately I stuck by the tried and true dining out with kids rules....

1. Go early.
2. Know what you want to order before you get there.
3. Lower your expectations just a hair.
4. Bring sippy cups and something for the kids to fiddle with at the table.

Done! I am proud to say that I successfully accomplished dinner out with my kids! Yay! They were all well-behaved, and we managed to get home in time for us all to have cake.
MMmmmmm...black and white cake fromUkrop's......

You have to have cake on your birthday!

We even got wild and took a group shot. I love the self-timer on my camera, it make it fun to try and get in the pictures once in a while.

After four or five attempts, we got this shot, that my kitchen sink took.

Just look at those guys! Aren't they just the best!? I love their smiles.

It was really a great birthday. Kira and I finished the evening on the couch, with more cake, and a new episode of Mythbusters, our regular Wednesday-night show.

The only thing that was lacking was that I didn't have my friend and soulmate to celebrate with me. He'll be back on Friday and I can't wait. I think we have something of  a celebration planned for next weekend, when my mom can come down to babysit.

This week has been just incredibly looooooong. I am so very tired. (but happy!)

Wisdom

"A pink doughnut would fix it."

                 -- Wren, upon telling me that her back had an itch she couldn't reach.

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!

Oh yeah....

This is my favorite beer.  I haven't had one in FOREVER. And I had one tonight.

Ok, maybe it's been just a year, but still...

All of a sudden, I wish it were summer.

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.