Julia overload

No, not my Julia, but Julia Child. Last weekend I watched Julie and Julia, which was cute, despite the unnecessary occasional swear word and then proceeded to hit the library for every Julia Child book on the shelves. 

I read the novel Julie and Julia, which I didn't care for since every chapter showed that Julie was suffering from a serious case of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) in the 2001-2004 time frame she was writing as well as exhibiting an unhealthy fixation on foul language, ingesting large quantities of booze, and her friend's sex lives. But now I am simultaneously reading Julia Child's biography and a collection of letters between Child and her penpal Avis Devoto, which are both fascinating. I also checked out THE book: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and am finding that all this reading about complicated cooking techniques is prompting me to bake a homemade yellow cake requiring buttermilk, heavy cream, and orange zest with white chocolate and cream cheese frosting for Mary's 12th birthday tomorrow. Schoolwork is cancelled in honor of her big day and we will be making valentines as well as dirtying every bowl in the house to make her birthday dinner and dessert.

baking success #2

Last night we had homemade chicken noodle soup and ate 2 loaves of my new discovery, No Knead Artisan Bread. 

On Tuesday morning I made delicious cinnamon rolls. Maggie took one bite and exuberantly said, " Oh, Mommy! You have to promise to make these again. These are soooo much better than the ones from the can!" I can imagine, as it takes about 1 minute to crack open the Pillsbury ones and throw them in the oven, whereas these took 2 hours from start to finish, and that was with the dough all ready in the fridge. But they were worth it and I plan on getting up early and making more on Saturday. (I only remembered to snap a picture after 6 rolls had been snatched off the platter so it makes enough for 5 children to have seconds and Mommy to have 1)

  
The pizza was a big hit as well and actually more convenient than bread machine dough as it was already in the fridge and I didn't have to plan at least an hour beforehand to have the dough made.

Baking is such a great project with the snow coming down outside and the roads too icy to drive on (I don't want to miss out on my no-accident present!), especially rolling out dough on my new granite counters (aren't they pretty?) and baking in my new gas oven. 

baking success

A few weeks ago I read a novel called Friendship Bread. While the story was entertaining, the recipe at the back of the book that the story was premised on sounded intriguing so I xeroxed the recipe and started my own batch of sourdough. After 10 days, I mixed up a batch for pancakes and found that they didn't have enough "lift" to be able to get a spatula under. I threw the whole mess away after a very long cleanup of my kitchen. 

This morning I gave another recipe a try, a No-Knead Artisan Bread that has people raving. I copied an article about it in Mother Earth News in 2009 and decided to finally give it a try. With public and private school cancelled for the day, I let the kids sleep in (Will slept until 10am) and with the only noise being the sleet rattling on the windows, mixed up the simple dough. After a 2 hour rise, I shaped a small round loaf, let it sit for an hour on the pizza peel, and slid it into the oven. The result was a small perfect loaf of bread that looked like it came from a fancy bakery. It was gone in a matter of minutes after I cut off a slice and we made another loaf, which disappeared just as quickly as the first. It seems I have found the perfect bread, crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside. The master recipe seems to be only the tip of the iceberg so I will be checking this one out from the local library and seeing if I can even make perfect pancakes with it as well. 

3 cups warm water
1 1/2 TBL yeast
1 1/2 TBL salt
6 1/2 cups flour
cornmeal

Pour warm water into a large bowl, add yeast and salt, then mix in the flour all at once until it is uniformly moist. Cover loosely and let rise for 2 hours. Sprinkle cornmeal on a pizza peel and sprinkle the dough with flour, pull off a grapefruit size piece. Gently stretch the dough around to form a round ball and place on the peel, leaving it to rest for an hour. Preheat the oven to 450 F for 20 minutes with a pizza stone on the center rack and put a pan on the bottom rack to hold water. Slash the top of the dough with a very sharp knife. Slide the bread dough onto the stone and pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan below. Quickly shut the oven door and bake for 30 minutes or until the bread is brown and sounds hollow when you thump on it. Allow to cool before slicing. Refrigerate the rest of the dough covered for up to 2 weeks. 

I'm just about to go into the kitchen to attempt to make pizza with this dough, which I usually make in the bread machine and tomorrow am going to try my hand at sticky caramel rolls.    

(update: for pictures of my pizza, bread, and cinnamon rolls: baking success #2)

hot soup to warm cold toes

Tim and Will are very good at starting fires in the wood stove, me not so great. I guess I better figure out the right placement of kindling and amount of crumpled paper before Will starts at Catholic school in January or we will be heating with expensive oil as opposed to not quite as expensive wood this winter. Two cords are on their way to the house this week after my nagging at my husband for weeks about getting some before the snow comes. A fire is so cozy and really warms up the house quickly and if I ever get around to putting the kettle on top, makes for some lovely hot cocoa. 

What I have been doing is attempting to make soup that warms the bones and toes. Last week I used up 5 or 6 onions I grew this summer and made the worst french onion soup ever known to exist. Too many bouillon cubes made the broth overpowering so I pitched the whole batch in the trash. Big mistake. The soup leaked out of the trash bag all over the garage floor and truck bed leading to Tim having to scrub both out and becoming very angry. He did later scrub off the "NO LIQUIDS" notice on my kitchen trash can lid that he had marked there in a fit of pique. But yesterday I tried again with canned beef broth and the result was better, but still not close to La Madeleine's signature soup. Today's cooking experiment will be beef and barley, served with a loaf of homemade bread. There is nothing like a thick bowl of hot soup to ward off the cold so in the weeks to come, the family should expect to smell lentil and sausage, chicken noodle, and beef stew simmering on the stove.

pancakes anyone?

The other day Mary and Julia Ellen accompanied me to the local grocery store to stock the pantry and fridge in our new home. As we were standing in front of the syrup selections Mary and I discussed the price difference between maple syrup and the commercial brands of "syrup." We decided to conduct a taste test comparison and see if boiled tree sap tastes 3 times better than the fake stuff, since it costs over 3 times as much. After reading a book last week about where our food comes from, which dedicates a chapter to the effort in making maple syrup I was eager to pour the real thing on my pancakes. I figured I shouldn't live in Maine, one of the top maples syrup producing states and NOT use it, but at $30 a quart, I've stuck with Log Cabin, which only contains about 2% syrup. So, last night I made pancakes for supper. Each child cut their 12" round in half and, after pouring from each bottle on top, they tasted the difference between "real" and "fake." Everyone agreed that the maple syrup side was much tastier. With 6 kids who love to drench their pancakes and waffles with sweet syrup, I might have to mix the two to stretch it, but we will still be supporting a local industry and eating better tasting pancakes.

what a crock

More than 45 million Americans now belong to a health club, up from 23 million in 1993. We spend some $19 billion a year on gym memberships. ..one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly. The survey ran from 1980, when only 47% of respondents said they engaged in regular exercise, to 2000, when the figure had grown to 57%.

And yet obesity figures have risen dramatically in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government's definition. Yes, it's entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don't. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight? Time Magazine

I found the link to this article at Why Homeschool and it kept nagging at me for the past few days. Yes, if someone works out for 30 minutes a day they could theoretically not lose any weight because of increased hunger and an entitlement attitude, "I exercised so I can indulge in this McMuffin with cheese." But after running for several years and resuming my running this past year, I promise that if you push a little further than just doing the stair climber for 20 minutes you will lose weight.

In training for my half-marathon I have lost almost 10 pounds in the past month and my cravings for sweets was more easily controlled than when I was only running 4-5 miles a day. I took it seriously and after reading numerous books in the past few months about women who lost some serious poundage, including the first female Biggest Loser winner, found that they really counted every calorie, and exercised a lot more than taking an aerobics class at the YMCA.

As for the obesity rate, that seems to be an entire different class of citizen than those who attempt to stay in shape. The majority of obese aren't doing much more than pushing the grocery cart around the store and filling it with soda, candy, meat, snack cakes, and ice cream.     

Go to any serious athletic event: dance competition, soccer match, or running race and you won't find many overweight competitors. Exercise does help you lose weight, you just have to put in more than the minimal effort and practice some self control.  

should we ban salads too?

After all, salad dressing is loaded with fat and salt so therefore an entire salad meal should be bad for us. "Ridiculous," any nutritionist would say. Likewise, a dash of Nesquick or Ovaltine doesn't take away any of the nutrients or protein in a glass of milk.

Throughout middle school and high school I ate a greasy chocolate chip cookie, a bag of raw mushrooms, and 2 pints of chocolate milk for lunch. Guess which item was brought from home?

Lately the school district of Chicago has decreed that their food is somewhat superior to mom-made meals and has banned brown bagged lunches. Other schools have warned local shops not to sell snacks to kids. Having never had children in government schools, it was news to me that the standard lunch of pb & j is not allowed due to allergies and homemade treats for birthdays or class parties are refused as well. Between the cost and quality of institutional food, I'm glad we homeschool and we have the added benefit of not having a cafeteria lady glaring at us for spooning a little chocolate syrup into our glasses. 

School lunches and childhood nutrition have been the subject of much debate in recent
years, prompting heated arguments over whether or not governments and schools
should regulate what children are allowed to eat. Last year, some schools across
the country banned chocolate milk, saying that it was too high in sugar and fat, and that healthier, lower calorie
alternatives should be substituted. The move was applauded by some, but
protested by others.

The Washington Post reports the 2009 chocolate milk ban in
Fairfax County, Va. sparked outrage from parents who felt that the calcium-rich
beverage shouldn't be outlawed. Responding to months of calls
and emails, district officials have announced they will reintroduce chocolate
milk in local cafeterias. Huffington Post

another milestone reached

Yesterday morning I stepped onto the scale and found that after many long months of running faithfully, I have finally gotten back down to my pre-Timmy weight. My size 6 jeans I had stored in the closet fit well in the morning, but are a little too tight by 6pm. It was such a lovely feeling to see those magic numbers on the scale that I let out a huge, "Whooooo!" and scared Tim so much that he came running. "What's wrong??"

What a lovely Christmas present to be able to fit in some of the clothes I have had packed away for 5 years. Luckily grey and black wool never go out of style.

what's wrong with dessert?

I think I would keel over dead in a day or so if I didn't have sugar to prop me up: hot cocoa (chai tea did horrible things to my tummy) in the morning to get me going, a Coca-cola after my run to cool me down and not let me take a nap, and a mid afternoon snack to propel me through until dinner. But the powers that be in St. Paul, MN; a panel of parents, teachers, school nurses and administrators have taken it on themselves to deem the city's public schools "sweet free zones." Dessert and salty treats are banned from the buildings in much the same way we saw school declared drug free and gun free areas in the 1980's and '90's. (Did that work so well? Say, at my alma mater, Virginia Tech?)

I think the student quoted has a much more clear concept of personal freedom than the grownups who have restricted their own food intake to somehow reduce the number of fat children.

"All my friends say, 'This really sucks,'" said Misky Salad, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Chelsea Heights Elementary. "A lot of us feel it should be up to us to determine what we should do with our bodies."

Superintendent Valeria Silva, who was hired a year ago, decided to take action after a study determined 40 percent of St. Paul's fourth-graders, most of whom are poor and minority, are obese. That's 11 percent higher than the national rate. Star Tribune

My vote is to have the 1st graders go to Superintendent Silva's home, as well as everyone on the wellness panel who thought this up and raid their fridges and pantries. Take out everything that could possibly be "dangerous" food items such as coffee (stunts your growth), sugar, oil, chocolate, chips, soda, liquor, cigarettes, matches, white flour, soy, salt... and give those who deem it "responsible" to dictate what goes in the mouth of others a taste of their own medicine. 

As I have written many times on this blog, there seem to be very few fat homeschoolers. I don't know why, but perhaps it is because those who want the best for their children take on the responsibility for both their education and health, rather than foist it off on some government entity or that homeschoolers spend more time doing active things than sitting in a desk all day. One reason is not that homeschoolers are denied the opportunity to eat a little something sweet after their lunch.  

baking days

In order to have a variety of cookies to send to all the aunties (and one lucky blog reader to whom I owe a certain item) for their Christmas gift, we have taken several days to put aside most of our schoolwork and mix and bake. This year we stuck with some old favorites and added some new ones, with mixed results. The almond macaroon recipe called for way too much egg white so we had to send Tim to the store to buy another 2lbs of confectioners sugar to absorb all the extra liquid. After 4 batches that spread out too much and stuck to the cookie sheet, I used that parchment paper that was waaaay back in the pantry and then we finally experienced success. The kitchen was covered in flour and powdered sugar, but with a little help from my 6 elves, we had the place spic and span before their daddy got home.  

 A selection of our sweet treats for your enjoyment:

In case you are one of the lucky recipients of our efforts, please note that these are NOT prepackaged cookies that someone in our family passed off as homemade, but the product of 3 days of work. All the children helped, some more than others, and all of them washed their grubby little paws beforehand.

Happy Thanksgiving

With most of the children still snug in their beds (oh, that's next month), I drove up to the Mariner's Museum to run a 5K Turkey Trot, but left before awards were given out (I had to get our turkey in the oven). I do know that I can't manage to get below 24 minutes, no matter how hard I run, and I was the 17th woman to finish (I counted heads at the turn around point). So I was absolutely famished for dinner, which was served at 2pm. Even though the children were only allowed one piece of plain toast all day, they still, for the most part, turned up their noses at my lovely meal. Most children would be gorging on sweet potato muffins, homemade stuffing, perfect mashed potatoes, and juicy turkey with gravy as well as the veggies, but not this picky bunch.

If I played as much as they did I would be so hungry that I would willingly eat the roasted leg of a musk ox, but they all seem to survive. The debate of the day is whether pumpkin pie will be offered to all or just the ones who managed to choke down some turkey and stuffing.    

baking day

The day before Thanksgiving is always filled with pans clattering, flour drifting through the air, and the smoke alarm going off at least one time. The kids will do a minimum of schoolwork so we can prepare for the big feast tomorrow. Tiny sweet potato muffins, pumpkin pie, mashed potato, green bean casserole, and stuffing will all be sitting in the fridge in the morning, leaving the oven free for the turkey. Prepping allows my stress level to not go out of control since I am not a good cook, especially under time pressure.

One of the other good reasons to prepare a day early is that I signed up for a 5K Turkey Trot at 8:30am on Thursday. Fitting this event into an already busy day might seem counterproductive, but I certainly won't feel any guilt about going back for seconds! 

candy wrappers everywhere

Due to participation in our chapel's Fall Festival and 2 hours of trick-or-treating, the children all have pillowcases stuffed with sugary confections. Unlike some moms who dole out the candy one piece a day, I prefer the "get it over with" method of letting the kids gorge on candy for 3 or 4 days before packing up the remainder and sending it in with Tim to work. They get to eat all their favorites, I get to sneak a few packets of sweet tarts and peanut butter cups and a week after Halloween our home is back to normal. However, for those few days I am constantly walking around with a wet wipe in my hand to wipe sticky mouths and furniture.

where do vitamins come from?

I have been reading a very interesting book entitled Twinkie, Deconstructed, My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats.

What amazed me was the complexity of processing in every box, bag, and jar of ready to eat food on the grocer's shelf. For every ingredient there is a long chain from farmers/miners to factories to make those substances into something edible. Many of the vitamins and minerals that make their way into pills and enriched flour are made in China, which does not bode well for our future security and health. This danger was emphasized today at this news:

China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted some shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said this week.

Our trade imbalance with China is so severe that any attempt to put tariffs on imported goods could result in a scarcity of One-A-Day bottles on the grocery store shelves or a return of such vitamin deficiency diseases such as beriberi (caused by an absence of thiamine, B1). What a mess we have found ourselves in today because of a 30 year transfer of manufacturing from the US to overseas. There are few items we really need to import from hostile countries, but vitamins are vitally important ones we don't think about.   

10 little, 9 little, 8 little pumpkins

We harvested 20 some pumpkins out of our garden this summer and I wheedled enough to get Tim to put every last one among the bikes and suitcases in the back of the truck to bring back to Virginia. I spent a lot of time and effort growing those babies and I didn't want to just toss them in the compost pile like the tomato plants (though we did have a fun, but messy afternoon playing tomato baseball).

The children have  decorated the front yard and claimed several of the large squash with taped-on signs, but I have snagged 2 pumpkins since we have been back to make pie. After reading advice from several of you, I roasted chunks of fruit in the oven for an hour, let it cool, and cut off the rind and pureed it in the blender. So far the pies taste a little less robust than tinned pumpkin pie and much lighter in color, but since there haven't been any leftovers, no one seems to be complaining. At this rate we might not have any pumpkins left in the yard by Halloween.

soup from h&*%

In my effort to productively use the tomatoes we have been harvesting from the garden, I scoured my battered copy of Joy of Cooking for recipes that require fresh tomatoes before heading to the commissary a few days ago. I stocked up on garlic and basil for bruschetta and heavy cream for tomato soup. Since real Italian bread wasn't available, I decided to go ahead and make the soup, which ended up being a huge mistake.

First, I chopped some onion and put the oil in the pan, turning my back for a moment to tell Mary to chop up the tomatoes, only to hear her scream, "Mommy!" Turning around, I discovered that the oil in the pot had caught on fire and was shooting 18 inches above the rim, almost hitting the exhaust fan. I yelled, "Open the back door!" and grabbed the pot, ran out onto the back porch and threw the whole mess into the grass below. After racing around the garage, I found a trash can and filled it with water to dump on the smoking pot.

With my only large pot permanently out of commission, I proceeded to make the soup (I didn't even have to cut up another batch of onions) and put it in batches in the blender. Another mess ensued with even a 1/4 full container swirling up and burning my hand and spattering red goo all over the counter.

Finally after a big cleanup, I served my homemade tomato soup to a unenthusiastic audience. Every child asked for a piece of bread as an alternative to eating my preparation-intensive dinner. Maybe that was a good thing, since eating a large bowl of the stuff made me more sick than I have been in a long time. So... I think in my effort to use up the rest of our garden produce I will refrain from any more culinary experimentation and take it all down to the food pantry so someone who's tummy can handle tomatoes will put them to good use.   

the perfect day

It is starting to get cool here in Maine with temps now in the mid-70's so I pulled out a pair of size 10 jeans yesterday before walking out to the garden. The waistband slid down to my hips, making me look like the Saggy Baggy Elephant. Apparently, running 5 miles a day has not resulted in any weight loss, but a redistribution of sorts. So, while the big kids were at their first piano lesson in almost a month, the little ones and I hot-footed it up to the Goodwill in Bangor where I scored 2 pairs of jeans that actually stayed around my waist. Serendipitously, they sported yellow tags, which meant my purchase was 50% off.

We had plenty of time to swing by the commissary and replenish our milk stock before pulling up in front of the piano teacher's house. I was surprised by her commenting on how well the children had played, especially Mary (who goes in my bedroom and shuts the door to practice, making me wonder if she is touching any of the keys at all).

To reward everyone, we hit the road for Craig Pond and had the entire place to ourselves for much of the afternoon. It was the most relaxing trip to the beach I have had in years with the little children happy to play in the shallows and the older children swimming together out to the rocks and not bickering.

To top off my idea of the ideal summer day in Maine, the children all bathed and brushed their teeth without too much complaining and I was able to close my eyes by 9pm grateful for my children, my husband, and all blessings I have been given.   

ego enhancement

Yesterday after swimming lessons we headed up to the "big city" to run a few errands. Since it was lunchtime the kids voted to go to Burger King even though most just wanted french fries and chocolate milk. As I am a connoisseur of fast food, I headed off of 95 at the Union Street exit because that restaurant is quieter and for some reason has better burgers than the one near the mall. The kids collected straws and napkins before staking out a booth. As I was filling my drink cup, an old crusty Mainer appeared at my shoulder and said, "You homeschool, don't you?"

"Yes."

"I can tell, those are real good kids you got there." 

While we were eating, I noticed a woman looking over at us every so often. After saying grace, we were laughing and blowing straw wrappers at each other, I was handing out cash for Charlie to go get another cheeseburger and milk, and Maggie kept popping up for more ketchup. This lady came over and said, "I have to tell you how beautiful your children are. They are so well behaved too." 

"Well, thank you."

Then the old gentleman came over to our table after he finished his meal and gave us another compliment, "Aye, those are good children. You take care of them."

To top off our 30 minute visit to BK, one of the cashiers also came over to our table to tell us how polite Maggie was when she went up alone to order some extra french fries, "She said, 'thank you'. It shows what a good job you are doing with these kids."

Gosh, if I didn't have to go home and live with these "good, polite, well behaved" children, I might just get a big head. Call me 'mom of the year' and I'll laugh harder than anyone.

a girl with an appetite

My grandfather used to joke that I had a hollow leg when I would eat 3 helpings of vegetable soup and still manage to scarf down an ice cream parfait for dessert afterwards. But I don't hold a candle to Julia Ellen, who at 17 months of age ate for supper tonight: 1/2 container yogurt, 2 slices of canned pears, 1 bowl applesauce, 1/2 of a hot dog, and 6 slivers of watermelon, with milk to wash it all down.

Note that she is not the neatest eater, but 90% of the food did make it into her mouth.

the little garden that could

Last summer I bought a few tomato plants, but then a fungus got them (the same fungus that caused the potatoes to rot in the fields of Ireland in the 1800's) and I didn't get more than a few mouthfuls of produce. So perhaps I bit off a little more than I could chew when I bought 12 tomato seedlings and 6 crookneck squash seedlings at the garden shop last month. I didn't really think about what would happen if they actually grew and produced.



We had a bit of a glitch when the baby squash started turning brown, but a quick Google search told me that it was blossom end rot, caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. Maine's very acid soils are great for blueberries, but not so great for veggies. I tossed a couple of handfuls of lime, which supplies calcium and raises the pH, around each plant while Charlie raked it in and Maggie watered. (Note the clover which I interplanted as a cover crop. They are NOT weeds, Charlie is a great weeder.) Two weeks later we are overwhelmed with 4-5" squash, more than I can saute with onion, even if I ate it every night for supper.



This afternoon I'm going to offer some to the drywall guys and hope that they take some home as well as investigate the possibility of giving some to the local food bank. I better hurry 'cause the tomatoes seem to all be poised to ripen next week and while I am salivating at the thought of a ripe tomato sandwich, a girl can only eat so many BLTs.