good to the grain

I received this lovely book last summer for my birthday, and believe it or not, I just got around to trying some recipes from it this weekend! I'm glad I did. This is a really lovely book that just begs to be used. A couple of things about it: I was expecting it to be a "healthy" baking book, mostly using familiar whole grains (mostly whole wheat), but it's not like that at all. The author is a trained pastry chef--she's not into whole grains for the health benefits at all. She loves them for their flavor and complexity. A lot of the recipes use half whole grain and half all-purpose flour. I'm fine with that, but it's not what I was expecting at first. The sweet recipes definitely use sugar--so again, not an emphasis on healthy per se. Secondly, each chapter features a different specific whole grain. There is one chapter on whole wheat, but the rest are all different grains--some of them rather exotic. So be prepared to invest in some different, less familiar flours if you really want to explore the book. I hesitate to buy a pantry staple unless I really think I'm going to use it more than once, so I'm proceeding slowly. Once you buy a bag of flour, theoretically you can use it to make all the recipes in that specific chapter, but that doesn't always work. For instance, I bought barley flour to make the "Bird Crackers" but not all the recipes in the barley chapter call for barley flour. A few do, but others call for barley flakes or pearled barley. Just something to keep in mind if you are thinking of buying the book. I'm not unhappy with it at all, but I do think these caveats are what kept me from trying the book sooner.




Here are the bird crackers as dough. A fun recipe--I love the idea of making crackers from scratch.





And here they are baked. I loved these. They are a soft sort of cracker, though.





I also tried the whole wheat chocolate chip cookies which are very good. The boys like these too.

Also on my list to try: homemade "grape nuts" type cereal, oat bread, and gingersnaps. I'd love to know your favorites from the book if you have it . . .

scenes from an unplugged Sunday

How we spent our unplugged Sunday: making a gnomey village, breaking out new coloring books, cooking, playing on the school grounds, having a first backyard barbeque (it was cold, though!). Faith joined us for most of it. Hooray! And I'm happy to say that I stayed strong and did not turn on the computer at all nor pick up my phone. Happy Monday to all!

another table runner

I made another table runner today. I so enjoyed working with this fabric--I love it even more made up into a table runner than as just a piece of yardage. Not that a table runner hemmed along the edges is so different from yardage, but there is something so satisfying in working with a heavy fabric and making nice deep hems. Truly a simple pleasure. I have one more length of fabric from my last trip to Ikea. Not sure if it will become a table runner soon, or in the fall, or if it might become a bag.

I LOVE a three-day weekend. Tomorrow we are starting Unplugged Sundays, inspired by Heather and her writing about this topic. I just decided it today and we start tomorrow. Of course, this is mostly for me. I doubt the teens will be participating, Ken lives a mostly unplugged life anyway, and the little boys don't "plug-in" much. This will give me a much needed break from screen time and will be good modeling for the boys. I may do a Sunday night post after the boys are in bed, but no computer use or texting or checking e-mail on my phone or watching a video or anything like that during the day. Music and taking pictures is okay. How about you? Do you do an "unplugged" day or afternoon in the week?

crumb cake!

I made a crumb cake over the weekend (oh, how I wish I had a piece right now! But alas, it's gone). I used this recipe from Martha Stewart Living (March 2011). I'd torn the article out of my issue when it was current and I'd been wanting to make it ever since. I decided to go ahead and try it last Saturday, even though I didn't really have an excuse (except to use up some buttermilk in the fridge). It's yum! I halved the recipe and used a smaller rectangle to bake it in. I loved the optional jam layer and broke open some yummy jam I'd been saving that Erin sent me last summer when we did a jam exchange. Highly recommended! This is my new favorite crumb cake recipe.

Unrelated: we watched My Neighbor Totoro tonight. So cute/weird! It's a favorite movie of Faith's from childhood. We still have her old VHS copy of it. We were so glad that the boys liked it too. Favorite parts:

• when the girls eat fresh cucumbers from the garden and just bite into them whole
• the cat-bus
• when the girls grab onto Totoro by the chest fur and float away with him
• the theme song at the end

Good times. Anyone else out there a Totoro fan?

table runner

I made a new table runner over the weekend. It freshened things up around here quite a bit. I wasn't sure at first if I'd like a print table runner with my print curtains, but I really so. I love the way the heavier weight of this Ikea fabric lies so flat as a table runner. I have two more Ikea prints in this heavy weight, so expect two more table runners to pop up on the blog pretty soon!

pictures from the weekend

I stayed home the entire weekend and it was very refreshing. We read Little House in the Big Woods (the Christmas chapter and the chapter about Pa's gun), played games, made salad people, and cleaned out a cabinet for the art supplies), and Rainer sawed through the log you see in the picture above--all by himself! I made coffee cake on Saturday.

Only 3 more weeks of school left. And next weekend is Memorial Day. Hooray!! I think we are finally nearing the end.

recipe journal

I've been experiencing a renewed interest in my old recipe journals. I had pretty well abandoned them for quite awhile (because it is so hard to look things up--the order of things is totally random-- and also because I am still loving this system for my everyday go-to recipes), but lately I've been pulling out this old book and adding stuff in--mostly recipes from my "to try" file, either ones that I still have yet to try or ones I've recently made. I like the visual presentation here. It's much nicer to have the recipes in book form rather than a tremendous stack. And I'm all about the tape lately--just slap it on there any old way and make some notes. Done. It's so easy and a nice walk down memory lane when looking back through. My first one of these dates back to when Jacob was a baby!

this week

{here is what my office inspiration board looks like for May. It has been a very busy month}

This week I . . .
:: ate at Sharkey's twice (!) with the kids (Sunday and Wednesday)
:: listened to such an interesting podcast about plastics (here)
:: felt quite emotional
:: texted a lot to Carrie, my dear friend who is always there for me (thank you, friend!)
:: bought myself roses at Trader Joe's and cut the stems short to make little arrangements (like this one) because alas the homegrown roses are just about gone
:: ate a Crushcake and watched The Tale of Desperaux with the kids (it was cute)
:: began reading "Little House in the Big Woods" to Dieter. Love!

What were you up to this week??

coffee cozy

I was so happy when I had time on Saturday afternoon to make a little coffee cozy --something I'd been thinking about for ages.

I've had this little Ikea french press for a year or so, but only recently started using it more often. I've been wanting a cozy, to help keep the coffee hot, but it's one of those things I was overthinking and just not getting around to. When I finally did get around to it I found it was easy and fun. I skimmed the tutorial on Tiny Happy but had to modify mine a bit because of the handle. Now that I've made a quick one and figured out how I want to do it, I'd love to make another, more in the patchwork style that Melissa used. As always, I love a quick and satisfying project!

my quarterly arrived!

It was so exciting on Monday when Faith texted me at work that much hoped for mail had arrived! For her, an anticipated packet from her college, and for me, my beloved 3191 Quarterly. I love the simplicity, the beauty, and the hominess of this little publication. The spring issue is the best so far, I think. Favorite articles this issue: morning routines, rice cake ideas, drawing encouragement, a trip to the tulip festival (how I wish I could go to that one in person!)

the best fruit and nut bars ever!

Love love love these bars! I think I mentioned a few days ago that I'd chosen some new recipes to try over the weekend. This is the real standout from the bunch. I'm always wanting to buy fewer bars for our "brown bag" lunches and make more of our own. I usually don't achieve the goal of making our own bars (although I'd prefer to if I had more time), so I felt extra proud of myself for getting these ready to go before the start of a busy week.



I've tried other bar recipes (like these ones), but this is the most successful so far. There's a lot of honey in there, which makes them extra yummy. Honey and dates--how could you go wrong? Rainer enjoyed helping by pulsing the food processor, but then when it came time to sample the bars he was all "me refuse to get my yuckies!" He loves to turn a weird phrase and Faith and I were both cracking up about that one. He's a boy who loves language and rhyming and strange phrasing. But rest assured, no one else thought these were "yuckies."



Recipe found here.

a colorful weekend

I was inspired by all the color I was finding around the house this weekend. I'm feeling a bit more like my old blogging self, having received a new camera for mother's day and being able to take better pictures now (as compared to using my phone, which I've been doing for the last several months). I also was inspired to do several little "projects"--a white tornado, a bit of sewing, and trying some new recipes. These things lighten and refresh me so much.

Today the boys were so into making paper airplanes. Usually they do so with Ken, but this morning they asked me to help them out. I found such good instructions in this book. Sometimes it's much more fun to find something in a book rather than just googling it. Also fun today--reading to them, lunch at Sharkey's (with my big girl too), taking a dip in my parents' just recently working-again hot tub, and watching an episode of "Wild Kratt's" on my parents' dvr (a show Dieter LOVES to watch when he is there. We saw an episode about monarch butterflies--so fascinating!).

Four more weeks of school now and I am SO ready for this year to be over. I'll be off to work in the morning because I have absolutely no sick days left and Ken will be taking Rainer to Santa Barbara for an MRI (a follow up from his seizure). Please send prayers and positive thoughts for him, as he will be under general anesthesia for a longish time.

this week

{"momcat" mug given to me by my mother for mother's day--it's "vintage"--my brother gave it to her in the 80's!}

This week I . . .

• switched over to using my French press for morning coffee (instead of this)
  
• was stressed out
• enjoyed the Planet Money podcast on medieval economies (so interesting! here)
• finished and photographed my green skirt
• enjoyed wearing thrifted clothing
• started "Polar Bears Past Bedtime" with Dieter
• thought I missed Dieter's "Teddy Bear Picnic" at his school (but it turns out it's next week)
• chose some new recipes from my "to try" file
• geeked out and bought two special royal wedding magazine issues
• tried Angry Chicken's slaw with magic sauce and it was yummy

So many little things happen in one week. What's on your list?