garden in the south

I am not a logistics person. Thinking things through just...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:04:00 -0500

I am not a logistics person. Thinking things through just isn’t something I’m good at - when I have an idea, I jump on it. So last month, in the run-up to Christmas decorating, I had this great idea. A beautiful idea. I would make a garland of felt poinsettias to decorate this 7 foot long fun-house mirror in our dining room (seriously, fun house mirror. One end adds about 10 pounds, and one end is distinctly flattering. I choose to believe that if I stand in just the right spot in the middle, I get an accurate reflection.)

So I found a tutorial, bought a bunch of felt and some beads, and decided this would be my Thanksgiving project, perfect low-key handiwork for a week at the in-laws’.

Did you read that tutorial carefully? No? Well, neither did I. Each poinsettia comprises 6 green petals and 6 red (or white. I made both.) Each of these petals needs to be cut, then trimmed. Then sew together the green, then the red. Then sew the red to the green. THEN, the beaded center. Did I mention the mirror is 7’ long? And that I was envisioning this garland draping?

So I made poinsettias, in 3 different sizes (starting with 2, 3, and 4 inch squares), and two colors. I even simplified it; the tutorial has you make the green leaves slightly larger than the red, and after the first one, I made them the same. All the way to Ohio (a 7.5 hour drive.) All week at the in-laws’. All the way home. I finished up the week after Thanksgiving, and started sewing them together. And realized they’re heavy enough to require enough stitching that they just wouldn’t drape. For the swag effect I wanted, I’d have to sew them into arcs.

Have I mentioned that we rent our house? The 7’ fun house mirror isn’t my idea. It’s really not something I’d ever choose. And I don’t plan on living with it forever. So I just wasn’t ready to spend the time plotting out & sewing this garland into a shape that would flatter said sometimes-flattering mirror, knowing that when I move to my real house someday I’d have to take it all apart and repurpose the flowers over which I’d labored so long.

So, a trip to Michael’s and 5 minutes with a hot glue gun later, voila! Poinsettia wreaths. A couple for friends, one for the door of the kids’ room (for which the boy desperately wanted a wreath; note his choice of bright red hanger.) And I still have some flowers left for an undetermined future project.

AND, I’ve also gained some powerful insight into the wisdom of really reading all through the directions first.

Two things I do are bake and read. And I also read about baking....

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:18:00 -0500

Two things I do are bake and read. And I also read about baking. One of my very favorite things to read about baking is Mary, The Food Librarian’s 30 Days of Bundts.

In 2006, Nordic Ware (based in St. Louis Park, MN) got Gov. Tim Pawlenty to sign a proclamation declaring November 15 (the anniversary of their Bundt pan’s introduction) National Bundt Day. The Food Librarian blogged National Bundt Day in 2009, with a prelude of 30 Days of Bundts leading up to Nov. 15. And a logo.

Last year I baked along (my grandma’s delicious apple spice cake, as I recall), but never got around to joining the round-up.

This year, my friend and coworker Mary (yet another baking-loving librarian. We we really are a dime a dozen.) and I decided to bake together. Partly because we’re always up for a good excuse to bake, and mostly because we really want buttons that say “I like big bundts.” ‘Cause who wouldn’t?

So Mary baked a brown-sugar poundcake with blueberries (rear, in the picture), which was caramelized and delicious, and I baked the spiced cranberry bundt cake from Bon Apetit, with which I’ve recently fallen in love. LOVE. It has Chinese 5-spice powder, but not too much (I dislike anise. But did I mention I love this cake? I also omitted the glaze, and didn’t miss it a bit. But then, I’m generally anti-glaze.) It’s buttery and almondy and there are fresh cranberries and dried … and I might make it about fifteen times this holiday season. Or at least several times, until I use up my bag of almond flour. Then I might try it with all regular flour, and a bit of almond extract. Or maybe even a bit of whole wheat flour, so I can pretend it’s healthy ;-)

Guest post!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:37:01 -0400

Guest post!:

I’ve been crafting a lot lately, and have a few blog posts saved up to write. Just as soon as Nathaniel finally settles on a Halloween costume, and I finish the several I’ve started (as he changes every week or so.) Meanwhile, I have a guest post up today at the lovely Tiffany’s The Kitchen Curtains! Her blog is fantastic, and I’m very flattered she’s asked me to guest : )

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I kill yeast. (All...

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:26:05 -0400

As I’ve probably mentioned before, I kill yeast. (All plants, really.) My husband is responsible for the breads in our household, including cinnamon rolls. And he has a great recipe for them, from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. (Note: when I say “cinnamon rolls,” I mean sticky buns. I’m not a white icing kind of girl - I believe cinnamon rolls should be covered in caramel & pecans.) They’re lovely. Soft and tender, and the caramel is buttery and gooey and cools to a hint of a crunch by the time you finish eating the roll. Perfect.

However, the recipe makes a bazillion. And in our house, there are only two of us eating them. The kids are at the stage of toddler-hood where “I haven’t tried that” is rendered “I don’t like that.” Really. My just-about-4-year-old who lives for milk and/or sugar just recently had his first ice cream. I’ve been offering it for years, and it took watching his just-about-6-year-old cousin eat some, then a few weeks of pondering, to convince him to try it. Anyway, Jon & I really just don’t need a 9x13 plus a few extra caramel rolls.

Besides, with the mixing and the shaping and the rising and the baking, the recipe takes about 4 hours start to finish, and by the time we get up, have a cup of coffee, and feel up to getting started, we’re more in the lunch range. So even though we love these, and talk about them frequently, we’ve only made them a handful of times. That’s about to change.

Last Sunday was Jon’s birthday. I was pondering celebratory breakfast ideas (he leaves for work on the weekends around noon, and comes home around 2AM), and really wishing it could be cinnamon rolls. I did ok with challah a while ago, and was feeling bold enough to try yeast again. But the 4 hours … even if I got cracking as soon as the kids got me up, we’re still looking at 10 at the earliest. Then, a friend pinned something to Pinterest about make-ahead cinnamon rolls. Turns out, they can rise in the fridge overnight. OR, they can be shaped, then frozen, and left overnight on the counter to thaw & rise.

If this worked, it could mean regular cinnamon rolls in the Sommers household. I had to try. So last Friday evening, the kids & I mixed up the dough. I put them to bed while it had its first rise, then mixed up the caramel topping and shaped the rolls. I divided them into two round cake pans, and tossed one into the fridge and one into the freezer. In the morning, I took out the fridge pan, and let it warm up on the counter for an hour or two (letting Jon sleep in a bit), then baked just in time to enjoy them with coffee andWeekend Edition Saturday. I got a little distracted by the kids asking that I sit in the armchair and read books with them, and the rolls were a little overdone, but decent. So, making the night before & baking in the morning works. Good to know. That meant that even if the freezing thing didn’t work out, I could still have them, say, every time we have company ever.

So the freezer batch… I took them out when the kids & I got home from the high school football game last night around 9:30, and left them. But 7 this morning, they were gorgeous. Risen even better than the fridge batch. I kept an eye on the clock while they baked, and after 30 mins they were perfect! Perfect! I’m about to have sticky buns every Saturday morning for the foreseeable future, and I’m really unreasonably excited about that!

For the record, I'm also a librarian

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:28:46 -0400

My kids have been to work with me. They talk about “Mama’s work,” they’ve seen me do it, they’ve used the library. They’ve sat at my desk and played at typing, they’ve swiveled in my chair. Cora helped me get a shipment of magazines off to the bindery a week or so ago.

This weekend, we were reading Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, and there’s a bit where it asks the kids, “What does your Daddy do?”

“Help people who are hurt or sick!” says Nathaniel.

“What does your Mommy do?”

“Dishes!”

lunch, lately

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:39:00 -0400

The past few weeks I’m addicted to the following, adapted from Beatrice Ojakangas’ “Pinto beans and pasta” in The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever:

1 can (15 oz) tomoatoes (I like the fire roasted kind.)

1 can pinto beans, drained & rinsed (I cook my own in the Crock Pot, soaked overnight, drained, and cooked all day on low, possibly with a bay leaf. 1 lb. usually yields about 3 cans’ worth, and I freeze them in Ziplocs in 2-cup portions.)

1 C small whole wheat pasta, like macaroni or shells

1.5 cups corn (canned or frozen. I always have a big bag in the freezer, as corn is right up there with jam sandwiches in Nathaniel’s book.)

1 medium onion, chopped (though the past couple batches I’ve used a bell pepper and onion blend from Kroger’s freezer section, as we ran out of onions, which blew my mind. Doesn’t that drawer at the bottom of the fridge just continually refresh itself with onions? Anyway, I like the addition of the peppers.)

1 T chili powder

1 t each oregano and cumin

garlic

Sautee onions (or onions & peppers) and garlic in a little oil until soft, in a wide pan. Add chili pwd, oregano, & cumin, cook a minute or so. Stir in tomatoes, pasta, and corn, and simmer until the pasta is done, then stir in beans.

At this point, the original is turned into a casserole dish, topped with cheese and crunched up tortilla chips, and baked until cheese is bubbly & browned. We did this the first time, and it’s really good (because, really, what isn’t better topped with cheese?) But it travels better sans topping, and is, of course, rather healthier. So the past couple weeks, I’ve tossed this together on Sunday evening (Seriously, about 20 mins start to finish, mostly just simmering away unattended, what with the pre-chopped vegetables), and voila! Portioned out, + fruit, lunch for the week!

on this morning's drive

Thu, 19 May 2011 08:00:28 -0400

“Mama, I want to drive a hook and ladder truck. And ride a skateboard. And drive a rocket ship.”

For the record, by "hairbow," she means "pigtail"

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:33:44 -0400

Cora: Pretty hairbow!

Nathaniel, pouting: But I don’t have a hairbow in my hair.

Mama: Would you like a hairbow?

N, even poutier: No. Boys don’t wear hairbows.

M: They don’t?!

N: No. Girls wear hairbows.

M: Who told you that?

N: Nobody. I thought about it for myself.

M: Bud, you can have hairbows if you want.

N: Look, Mama! Look what Little Fox is doing!

while i was baking a pineapple upside down cake

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:57:38 -0400

Jon & I turned around to find Nathaniel pantsless.

“Nathaniel, why are you naked?” asked Jon.

“Because I am pretending to be Hopscotch.”

“Does Hopscotch not wear pants?”

“Yes, he does!”

“Then why are you naked?”

“Because I am pretending to be Hopscotch!”

Of course.

my little friend gus, who is amazing

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:51:28 -0500

gus: i wanna watch a documentary.
me [his mom, arielle]: can you tell me what a documentary is?
gus: a documentary is a show that people watch with their kids.

in which the boy learns about conversation hearts

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:14:14 -0500

Wow! I never saw candy hearts before!

…

These are not good for me.

…

Mama, I think I will brush my teeth. They are candy heart-y.

So a year or so ago I saw this purse made out of the Chicago...

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 18:35:53 -0500

So a year or so ago I saw this purse made out of the Chicago Manual of Style, and fell in love with it. But not quite enough to spend the money on it. Besides, I happen to work in a library that owns three copies of the 15th edition, and knew that the 16th was forthcoming. So Mary Jackson, our intrepid reference librarian, and I made plans to attack the 15ths once the 16ths were on the shelves.

In the meantime, we withdrew the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. I used the 1993 book and a very helpful tutorial from Hungry Panda to make Mary a purse. It took me a couple months, what with needing to find child-free work time, and not having a sewing machine, but I’m pleased with the way it turned out, and can’t wait to attack the Chicago!

Our thermostat is upstairs. Downstairs is always cold. Cold....

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 18:37:51 -0500

Our thermostat is upstairs. Downstairs is always cold. Cold. People don’t visit us in the winter, because when they do they wear coats to hang out in our living room. And gloves. We bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer to check the thermostat’s calibration, and found that it’s accurate; there just isn’t good airflow down. So we moved it downstairs to see just how cold it is. And I’ve been waiting for it to be warmer outside than in. We came home from church today, and it finally happened.

When I was a kid, my grandma had her grandma’s cookie jar...

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:20:15 -0500

When I was a kid, my grandma had her grandma’s cookie jar on the counter, a round green tin with small holes in the top. It always had cookies in it (I believe my grandpa, to this day, has a cookie & milk before bed every night), and they were rarely homemade. As an adult, I kept an eye out for a cookie jar, half-interestedly, and never found one I liked well enough to buy. Since, of course, this is going to sit on my counter forever.

My husband brought this one to our marriage. It’s perfect. I love it. And its emptiness impels me to bake more cookies than I ever imagined I would, because even though Grandma did it, I can’t quite imagine putting bought cookies into a cookie jar.

Once upon a time, I had a friend who worked at Penzey’s....

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 18:24:00 -0500

Once upon a time, I had a friend who worked at Penzey’s. We talked a lot of cooking, and one day he brought me a huge brick of instant yeast. I baked all of my own bread for a year or so, and messed it up every time. Too little kneading, left out the salt, under-baked, over-baked … I never made the same mistake twice. Then I met a boy who worked in a bakery, and made wonderful hearth-baked breads. We got married, and I haven’t baked bread in about 6 years.

I regularly make a French toast casserole, which is great, but has been less so since we moved from Pittsburgh, and no longer have access to Allegro Hearth, and I’m not sure I’ve seen a loaf of challah since. A friend recently blogged her own first foray into braided egg bread, and I was inspired. Since I had today off, and I’ve promised an egg-bake to a family get-together this weekend, and we were recently given the new New York Times Cookbook, which includes a detailed recipe run in the paper in the late ’70s, I tried it. And it probably could’ve rested longer before going into the oven, but still, I’m pretty proud of this eight-strand braid.

Photo

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:21:29 -0500

Rabbit supervised the cookie decorating.

Perhaps predictable.

Building an igloo, sans snow.

it's even more fun as a parent

Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:21:21 -0500

When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the best holiday. We did family Christmases with our Dad, and with our Mom, but Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma & Grandpa’s. Grandpa lined the horseshoe drive with luminarias, and wore the red plaid sportcoat. There was food - a spread of hors d’oeuvres, once it became clear that children didn’t do well with a full turkey dinner when we could see presents just across the room. I loved the preparation, the cooking, the shaking boxes & trying to guess, the getting dressed up (before Grandma died, it was a dress-up affair), everything. Tonight my family gathered, ate, laughed. I have no doubt the red plaid jacket was there, probably on Grandpa (though, I believe, Dad’s been known to sport it on occasion.) A phone call was good, but, of course, not at all the same.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee … this is the first year that Nathaniel has been really excited about Christmas. He’s been looking forward to it for months. I bought an Advent calendar, just to give him some sense of how long the wait was, because after his nap on Thanksgiving he woke up and proclaimed, “And after Thanksgiving, it will be Christmas! Yay! It’s Christmas!” (The calendar has led to a month of him responding to his teachers’ offers of breakfast with, “No, I had chocolate,” but that’s another story.) He wants a Noah’s Ark. I’ve heard this several times a day since October. His letter to Santa from playschool specifies that he also wants giraffes. Noah’s Ark, complete with giraffes, is under the tree. I can’t wait for him to have it.

Cora, I think, doesn’t know what’s coming. Next year she’ll be into it, too, but this year it will be a complete surprise, and that’s wonderful in its own way. She has a baby doll and a sit-n-spin, and a sleeve of racquetballs. And I think she’ll love them all. She also has Thomas the Tank Engine jammies, which match her brother’s, as she is in love with Thomas these days. I’m not sure whether it’s for Thomas’ own sake, or because she loves her brother. Tonight during his bath, she rocked the new jammies, and N’s fire engine boots, and N’s Lego headlamp.

Santa will not be visiting our house. Nathaniel isn’t as afraid of him as last year - at least we don’t have to skip the Santa parts of Caillou’s Winter Wonders anymore - but still, my kid’s going to be that one, who tells his classmates that Santa doesn’t come to his house, and his parents buy the presents. Not through any ideology of mine. I never thought I’d be that mom.

N informed me earlier this week that on Christmas Eve, we would bake Christmas cookies. It occurred to me last night to ask what kind of cookies he meant. ”Christmas cookies, and not regular cookies.” Turns out, the Christmas variety are shaped like Christmas trees. I am not a rolled-cookie baker. I don’t own cookie cutters. Fortunately, Target had them on clearance today. (Who knew that Dec. 24 was the day to mark down all the holiday merchandise, and roll out the spring lines?) We now own a tree, a star, and a snowman. And we made egg yolk/food coloring paint, and had a grand time. An astonishingly calm, un-messy time, considering the combination of two toddlers and paint. It washed out of Cora’s hair beautifully, and came out of the carpet just as easily ;-)

It might snow tonight, but today was clear-ish. The kids played outdoors while Jon & I cooked (Jon decided we needed pfeffernussen, in addition to the sugar cookies. I also made rugelach, and French onion soup. Our house smells great.) Nathaniel built igloos in the sandbox. We read stories. Jon left for work, the kids had baths, changed into their matching Thomas jams, and went to sleep. I talked with the family, and set up the presents. All in all, a wonderful day. And I cannot wait for the kids to wake up!

bonus

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:08:00 -0500

This morning at day care (“playschool” in our house, to capitalize on Caillou’s affection for the place) Cora was a little extra snuggly. I finally put her down, and sent her off to the table for her blueberry muffin & milk. She got all the way to her seat, turned around, and came back, arms outstretched. I gave her a hug, mentally bracing to have to guide her away. But that was it - she took the one extra hug, turned, and went off happily for her breakfast. It’s so nice to be Mama.

imagination

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:29:27 -0400

Is that a elementary school?

Yes, it is.

What is the elementary school doing?

Teaching kids all kinds of cool things.

Are they playing with toys?

Well, there aren’t as many toys at elementary school as there are at playschool. There are more books, though. You’ll learn to read all by yourself!

Yeah!

Big, long books, like Mama and Papa read. With no pictures! And you’ll imagine the pictures in your head!

<pause>

I have little teeth in my head!

a little furriner in my house

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:15:00 -0400

Nathaniel is becoming ever more verbal, which is a joy and a wonder every day. Most of the time it makes life a lot easier (“Nathaniel, where are your jammie pants?” ”In the toolbox. Nathaniel was going on an airplane.” And then yes, there are the jammies, neatly packed into his toolbox-cum-suitcase.) Sometimes it makes life harder (“Mommy! I want to stay home!” cried as I try to leave daycare in the morning.)

Sometimes, though, little things creep through that remind me that he’s not growing up where I did. (“We’re going to have to give you a haircut pretty soon, Bud.” ”Because Nathaniel’s hair is getting big.”) And the pervasiveness of “You all.” (“What are you all talking about?”) At least he’s not contracting it ;-)