about baking the "flat" cookies

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this weekend and they were yummy! Rainer called these the "flat" cookies to distinguish them from the healthy cookies which I also made at the same time. The kids eat both but you can guess which is more popular.

I finally got a chance to try my new book which I received for Christmas from my friend Sarah. (Thanks, Sarah--I love it!). This is one of those "cookbooks with heart" that I love so dearly. It's written by a mother and a daughter who run a bakery in Portland, Oregon. It sounds like my kind of place, though I've never been there.
Everything looks so delicious!
These little biscuit/jam things look especially appealing to me. I'm a big fan of sconey/biscuity things. If I try these I'll definitely blog about it.
Maybe it seems like I'm flip-flopping all over the place when it comes to adding-in or subtracting sugar from my diet. But in all honesty, what I dream about is being "self-actualized" when it comes to my diet in general and my sugar consumption in particular. I strive to be a healthy, low-sugar eating, real, and nice down to earth person who can definitely enjoy a homemade cookie now and then. Can anyone else relate to that? I love to bake and I love to eat sweets and it's fun to have a baking day and share treats with the family. I just don't want to overdo or to have it become an everyday or several times a week thing. And I don't want to model that for the little boys, either. So my plan is to only eat sweets on Sundays (preferably a home-baked something) or on special days like on vacation or when visiting Crushcakes with Rainer after his doctor's appointments. I've been doing pretty well since Lent, not perfect. I'll keep you posted!

hybrid napkins

Something I have been wanting to do for a very long time is to make some napkins that are a combination of pretty cotton print and practical white cloth. I adore to set a pretty dinner table with cloth napkins but Ken much prefers to use an ugly white cloth because it's more practical and absorbent. I've been thinking, why not combine the properties of both and use a pretty cotton on one side, practical flour sack towel on the other, and bind them together with bias tape? So that is what I did (exactly once--so far this is the only one I've made)!
Here's what it looks like on the other side. I used a new flour sack towel (cut to size) for the back. Thoughts:
:: this one is a little small at 14 inches. Next time I'll try a 16 or 18 inch square.
:: I made my own bias tape but that seems a little silly for everyday cloth napkins. On the other hand I love the look of it.
:: I never have learned how to reliably apply seam binding. As a result, it's usually an exercise in frustration, with areas on the back not getting sewn down and the corners looking messy. I might ditch it and just sew these right sides together and turn them.
:: I think putting some time into this project would be worth it in the end. I do so love a pretty table and it would be awesome to have some napkins that Ken will use too.

In other news:
Green Smoothie Week came to an abrupt end when my blender broke on Saturday. I was so sad, but Ken went online immediately and ordered a replacement part. Thank you Ken!

I'm in the process of signing up for Freecycle so I can give away our crib to someone who would like it. If that works out I'll probably post my breast pump too as long as that's allowed. It sounds like a great organization.

how I do the mexican rice

I have always wanted to make yummy authentic Mexican rice that is family friendly. I doubt this is very authentic, but here is what I have found that works for us.
To start, chop 1/2 cup onion, some carrots if you want, and measure out a cup of rice. I haven't had much luck in the past using brown rice for this, but now that I'm consistently having success with white rice I might just try again with brown, or even half brown and half white. I do suggest using white at least to start.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy pot, add the rice, onion and carrot and saute it all together until the rice gets a little bit "toasty." I love this part--bunging everything into the warm oil, stirring it around, and waiting it for it to change color . . . it smells good too.
Meanwhile, set out 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 2 cups of water, and a little bit of frozen vegetables if you want. I really like the rice with veggies in it so that's what I do. It is really pretty with "mixed veggies" but today I only had peas. Also get out 1 teaspoon salt. (If you opt to use chicken broth instead of water just omit the salt). For those of you whose children like spicier food, you can use El Pato instead of tomato sauce. It's really good, but too spicy for my littles.
Once the rice is nice and toasty, add the water, salt, and vegetables. Let it come to a boil, cover, and reduce the heat to very low. Cook for 20 minutes then turn off the burner.
When you are ready to eat, fluff the rice and it's ready.
Tonight we did make your own burritos again. Very popular with the fam (as were those cookies you see--I'll post about those soon). For those of you asking about the homemade tortillas, I hope to make a little "tutorial" very soon, maybe even this week.

Other things:
:: Dieter got a twin sized bed and Rainer is switching to a toddler bed. I'm going to put the crib on Freecycle. A bit poignant for the mama, but the boys are so excited! You can imagine our bedroom is even more cozy (crowded) than before.
:: I've given up on our local farmer's market for the foreseeable future. It's unbearably crowded, almost impossible to navigate with my low-end, unwieldy double stroller, and Southern Californians are not super friendly so I'm definitely not getting a warm fuzzy feeling about it all. So from now on I'll just be taking the boys to a park or to the demonstration garden on Sundays and it's going to be much much better. (I do feel bad about passing up on the local food but until our farmer's market becomes more user friendly, that is they way it has to be. Fortunately it looks like we're going to have tons of food from our garden soon.)
:: I'm working on a backpack for Rainer like this one. I'm having difficulties with the straps though, so didn't get it done. While I was working, Faith and I watched Supersize Me for the hundredth time practically, and we love it.
:: I can't wait to try these.

Have a wonderful start to the week, everyone.

fun mail lately

We have had so much fun mail coming our way lately! Thanks to Postcrossing we are meeting new friends and finding it so much fun to get the mail each day and discover what surprises are awaiting us. Postcrossing is postcard exchange site--you sign up (it's free), send one to five postcards at whatever pace you want, then when your recipient registers your postcard on the other end, it's your turn to receive a postcard from a random Postcrossing user from anywhere in the world. It's truly fun. As much fun as it is to receive the postcards, Faith and I both adore sending them maybe even more.

One thing that happened as a result of Postcrossing is we made a new friend. Faith sent a postcard to a very nice young woman named Micaela, who received it graciously. We could tell from her enthusiastic response to the card, and from her profile on Postcrossing, that she was a kindred spirit. Faith decided to send her a package just for fun, and I got in on it too. Above is the card Faith made for her (bad lighting because it was early morning when I took this) and we filled the box with handmade goodies and whimsical treats. It was so fun to put together and mail off to surprise Micaela!

Micaela loved the box and she reciprocated by sending a lovely box to us! We have never done any kind of package exchange before, so this was a lovely surprise. Look at the card Micaela made for us. We love her talent for collage!

And look at all the vintage goodness she included. We are so delighted and also touched by the kindness of people. It is so heartening to find like-minded souls out there. We also discovered Micaela has a blog: Dolce Vita. So now we have a new young bloggy friend!
This is just one day's mail haul. It was so exciting to come home from work and find all this.
Carrie sent me all these gorgeous vintage buttons. There are tons of them and I adore them! Thank you so much Carrie!
And much to my surprise today I received this very pretty recycled notepad from Stubby Pencil Studio--totally unsolicited by me--it's a customer appreciation gift. Maybe some of you got it too? It's just my taste.

in the kitchen lately

I have some food posting I've been meaning to do so here you go. This granola turned out yummy. I tried following the directions in How to Cook Everything, but toasting the oats on the stove didn't work for me (they started to burn) and I ended up adding a glug of oil before baking this in the oven because I just couldn't believe that granola with no oil would crisp up. I like the combination of ingredients I used--oats, pecans, coconut flakes, pepitas and dried dates--with cinnamon and maple syrup. So yummy! Of course with granola you can't really go wrong.
Sunday cooking included making a big pot of pinto beans (back burner) and a huge batch of broccoli soup for the lunches (front burner--there's a whole head of broccoli in there but it's towards the bottom).
The beans turned out to be the best beans ever! This was dinner Monday night: beans, Mexican rice, and homemade corn tortillas. I loved this meal. I made the beans following Kyrie's guidelines (here).
Here's how the broccoli soup looks after blending with the stick blender. This is the ideal lunch for me to take to work along with some fruit. I used the recipe from Apples for Jam but instead of potato I use cauliflower. So the soup (I call it the "diet" version) consists of: 1 head broccoli, 1 head cauliflower, 1 red onion, chopped, 6 cups water, 3/4 c. half and half, and salt to taste. I highly recommend it, it's yum.
In other kitchen news, we are having a green smoothie week. Here is our most successful combination: 2 oranges (we are so lucky to still have Cara Cara pinks on the tree!), one or two bananas, frozen mango chunks, one apple, and a whole bunch of kale and/or spinach. Then I pour over enough of the boys' diluted juice to make it easy to blend.
See how pretty? The thing is, I tend to leave out strawberries because they turn the color to a murky green at best. I like my green smoothies to be bright and pretty.
(The one he is drinking here has the strawberries--not as pretty).
The absolute best part is that all the children love these, including Faith. It makes me so happy to see them drinking their green elixirs, plus I love the family togetherness of gathering around to help mix up the smoothies after I get home from work. Green smoothie week continues through Monday. Won't you join us?

finger knitting

Over the weekend I taught Dieter how to finger knit. He loves it! It's thrilling to see him involved in the joy of creating. Now he wants to do it every day; I can totally relate!
He has declared this little corner of the kitchen to be his "workshop" and he sits and knits in the afternoons while I get dinner ready. Yesterday, he gave his friend Sofia a gift of a piece of finger knitting presented in a little box. Very sweet and fun.

thrifting update

When Carrie was here over spring break we went thrifting. We always seem to have good luck when we're together. Here are some of my finds: Yummy textiles--a gigantic retro sheet, towels, and 4 cotton Vera napkins. Score!
Gap jeans in "long" which I love, and a cute t-shirt. Great after work outfit.
I loved the t-shirt just for its little bird. Faith disapproves, though. She says it's a bad brand. I don't know the difference and it has such a cute fit.

Sweater to go with above outfit.

A plate for outdoor summer tables, set with mismatched dishes.
An interesting book that is all written-in by its previous owner.

What have you been thrifting lately?

a picture-heavy post about lunches

Since giving up Diet Coke as one of my Happiness Project resolutions, I'm now taking a healthy Klean Kanteen of water to work every day. I hate plain water, though, so I take a couple lemon slices along, which is good, but I was taking them in a little glass container and it was so clunky when added to all the other glass containers I haul to work every day. Finally, last Friday I had the revelation that these little lemon slices don't have to be kept airtight in glass or plastic. Who cares if it gets just a little bit dried out? I'm only going to squeeze it into a Klean Kanteen anyway. So I gathered some little drawstring bags and made some more. I found a plain tiny muslin bag that I think is meant for spices but I had never used, then I found that little floral bag on the bottom there (from Anthropologie when you sign up for their e-mails) and I made the other two this weekend.
Here's one of the homemade ones with two lemon slices--all cinched up and ready to be transported to school. I think this is so pretty and I love having something cheery to look at at work.
I made a somewhat bigger bag for Faith to carry her trail mix in. She chose a sturdy canvas.
We bought the trail mix from the bulk aisle at the local health food store so bagging it in cloth continues with the theme of no extra packaging.
When I went to put her trailmix in her bag I couldn't resist photographing all this cuteness--the bag she made herself and her planner. Remember the valentines I made the family? She cut hers out and glued it on.
The back of the planner is so cute too.
Then I couldn't resist trying on her bag myself.
Here's my lunch for tomorrow--soup in a glass container, cut-up pineapple, crackers and string cheese for snack, lemon slices, water. Every day I lug all this to school, but it's worth it. My lunch is the hugest of anyone's because I have to eat a snack at 10am every day--otherwise I can't get through.
Here's Faith's lunch. Along with the trail mix she'll have fruit in jars--she grabs a fork on her way out the door. She can't tolerate sandwiches anymore.
Lunches--packed, refrigerated, and ready to go for tomorrow. Everyone takes a cloth sack except Ben. It's a huge relief to have these done every day.

low-sugar no-sugar

So, ever since Lent, I've been continuing on with my resolution to eat less sugar. I have to say, I love the feeling of eating more in line with how I want to be eating. I feel healthier, lighter, less guilty, and more like the kind of eater I would like to be. On the other hand, I have to remain vigilant. It would be shockingly easy to reverse the whole thing and go back to the way I was before--which was putting sugar in my mouth constantly. I don't want to go there, so I'm sticking (mostly) with my April resolution to only have a sugary treat on Sundays. I've slipped just enough to realize that I don't want to slip. In truth, I've lost the taste for such concentrated sweetness as regular candy or soda. So, here are a few of the "less sweet" things I've made recently. This scone above is what I made when Carrie was visiting over spring break. It's from the Tassajara Bread Book. I was amazed at how very yummy this was! Carrie is the one who suggested serving scones with unsweetened whipped cream and berries. Ideally, you'd have more berries than this--we were running just a bit low which is why it's not more buried in fruit. This is just the kind of dessert I want to be eating now.
Also from Tassajara, the "Oriental Spice Muffins." I loved these. They are sweetened entirely with molasses. The family didn't like them as much as I because the less sweet flavor takes some getting used to. I have to be careful with this because I don't want to be the only one eating a dozen muffins, ya know? Rainer and Ken did eat theirs--Faith and Dieter not so much.

Ditto with the fruit juice muffins, also from Tassajara. I made these with a can of crushed pineapple, which I thought was brilliant, but again the lack of sweetness made them less popular with the family.
Here's the recipe for the excellent scones:

Cream Scones from the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown

1 c. buttermilk
6 T. sugar or honey (I used honey)
1 egg
3 1/2 c. flour (I used half whole wheat)
2 heaping teaspoons cream of tartar
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
1/2 c. melted butter or oil (I used butter)

Blend together the buttermilk, honey and egg. Stir in the dry ingredients and the melted butter. He suggests cooking these on a griddle. I patted the dough into a huge circle, cut into wedges, sprinkled the scones with raw sugar, and baked in the oven on a piece of parchment. No instructions are given for this but I think I baked them at 350 for maybe 15 minutes? or until done.

I'd love to hear your own experiences in reducing sugar in your life.