a little break

Just popping in to say I'm going to be on a little blog break for the next week or so. I have so many ideas for crafting and sewing right now . . . not sure if I'll get anything actually done, but I want to focus my efforts at least. And next week I have the whole week off and want to really make it a great week with my little boys, so I'm planning that too. Getting inspiration from this book and this book. I usually don't have the whole Thanksgiving week off, but through a combination of furlough days and our usual Thanksgiving break this year I do and I so want to make the most of it! See you next week . . .

meatless supper #8

This is the last week of Enviromom's meatless supper club. I decided to make the Cauliflower-Cheese Pie with Grated Potato Crust from the Moosewood Cookbook as my last recipe of the project. This is sort of quiche like, but less eggy and more vegetably, especially since the crust is grated potatoes instead of a regular crust. With all the cheese and veggies in it, there is nothing not to like about this dish, except for the long prep time. Being an under-reader of recipes as I am, I neglected to notice that the crust bakes for a full 40 minutes, then once the filling is added, back into the oven it goes for another 35-40 minutes! So dinner was later than expected, and as you can see from the photo, I lost the light once again. Oh well!!! I think everyone liked this, at least a little. I thought it was excellent. I'll definitely make this again. I've noticed that with these more time consuming recipes, things really do go better after the first time or two making it. Next time I'll start early!

Check Enviromom on Friday for more meatless meal ideas. This is the last week, but I know I'll be checking the archives in the future--lots of good links over there.

bonus studio morning

Wednesday I had an extra free studio morning-- it was delightful. We all had the day off and Ken took the boys for a couple hours so I could finish a project I was working on. Thank you, Ken!
I was very much wanting to take down our birthday garland from October and put up something more Novembery. It was one of those projects I had so much in my head and I really needed to do and complete it. I decided to follow the guidelines in Handmade Home for the One-Word Banner.
I worked on it in three mini-sessions. The first night I just selected fabrics. I love this part of a sewing project. It is such a fun challenge for me to select colors and patterns to go together.

The second night I cut the pieces.
Then on Wednesday I was able to put it all together.
Voila! I am so happy with my Novembery banner and hopefully it will remind us all to give thanks during this most special month.

meatless supper #7

This week I decided to make a recipe from Apples for Jam for Enviromom's meatless supper club. I love this cookbook and find the recipes and the writing so inspiring (not to mention the gorgeous photography). In addition to the recipes, Tessa Kiros, the author, also offers lots of vignettes on childhood memories and on mothering her own children. It's a delight! Her other book, Falling Cloudberries, is on my wishlist.
The book is not vegetarian, but there are plenty of meatless selections--just how I like it. I chose "Spaghettini with egg and toasted parsley breadcrumbs." It was tasty and quick. Everyone liked this. Pasta is always a hit, isn't it?
You can find the recipe here. Sorry for the bad food pics recently. With the shorter days I'm finding it impossible to photograph the food before I lose the light. Rest assured, it tasted better than it looks!

Remember to check Enviromom every Friday for more meatless meals.

christmas preparations

So, amidst thinking about and staying present in Fall, I'm also trying to do just a bit of Christmas "work" so I won't have to in December. I'm planning a very relaxed, joyful, fun, family oriented Solstice and Christmas this year, which, for me at least, does not include rushing around at the last minute getting packages ready. It is so much more joyful for me to do it now, at a relaxed pace, then to rush when time is very limited. So to that end, I've been tying up jam jars and wrapping up the first few presents.
I covered the first few jars (one with fabric, one with paper) but found I like the presentation of the sticker with just some twine around the lid, secured with a button. I like the cleaner look of it.
Now if only I can keep this up!

corners of my home: organizing scraps in the studio

Thanks for the "corners of my home" love everybody. Here's a corner that is coming along slowly but steadily--it's an area for holding my scraps and sorting them into colors. I am finally getting on top of my scrap mess with the help of these bags. My plan is to cut my scraps into usable pieces as I work on projects and sort them by color according to the log cabin square on the front of each bag. Hopefully I'll never have a such a big pile of unsorted unusable scraps again.
On top of this little peg rack are some inspiring postcards of the moment. I like to change them around by the seasons. Maybe these are not exactly fallish, I don't know, but I do like the color scheme of yellows and aquas.
I'm loving the yellow bag best of all. I have two more in the works: black and pink. On Sunday I made the yellow bag and cleaned the front half of my studio. It feels great. What about you? Done a chore or organized something that makes you feel great recently?

corners of my home: dining room table

It makes me immeasurably happy to put together these little vignettes on the dining room table. My little boys brought in these white flower-weeds for me today--so happily and so innocently. As I've said before, it's a very special thing when a child brings flowers to his mama. This afternoon I was noticing how pretty they look with the irregularly shaped pumpkin and the beeswax acorn and the late afternoon sunlight. I think it's so important to stop for a moment and notice these little pockets of peace and beauty. That is a huge reason why I love blogging--because it makes me appreciate these moments and because gives me someone to share them with.
I've had the acorn candle for a bit now, on the nature table, and I wasn't sure if I should burn it. I'm so glad I decided to! It's a great candle. The pumpkin is from a little boy at Rainer's daycare--his family owns a citrus orchard and I'm pretty sure they grew this pumpkin too.
I'm still enjoying the garland. I very much want to make a fall one with the word "thanks" on it. We'll see if I make it happen!

{Turkey bib}

By the way, the "corners of my home" concept is not mine. It's vintage Soulemama. Here's one of her early posts. I love the concept of preserving these little "corners" to remember later, when everyone is older and perhaps the spaces have changed or are used differently. I never posted any "corners" of my own, though, because I kind of thought none my corners were blogworthy. I'm changing my attitude, though, and embracing the concept of "my life is beautiful as is." It feels good.

healthy waffle update: going syrup free

I made more waffles this morning and made two more healthy discoveries. One--I substituted almond meal for part of the flour, as suggested by "Maiz" in the comments to this post. The batter was all flecked and healthy looking, but they bake up looking totally "normal" so the kids never noticed a change. Two--Dieter went syrup-free. I tried it too and they were delicious with only butter. Crispy and super light.

Here's the recipe for those of you who asked:

Basic Waffles

2 cups flour [I've been experimenting with a combination of white, wheat, and almond meal. Today's batch was 1 c. white, 3/4 c. whole wheat, and 1/4 c. almond meal. Next week I'll switch the proportions of white and wheat].
2T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 3/4 c. milk
6 T. canola oil
2 large eggs

Mix all the ingredients together and then let stand for 5 minutes. Pour by 1/3 c. onto preheated waffle maker.

Enjoy!

corners of my home

The boys don't have a room of their own--their beds are in our room--but Dieter has this little corner of his own, nonetheless. I very much like the idea of him having a small, restful and cozy place. I bought this peg rack at a garage sale, not really knowing what to do with it at first. I like it holding these things--hand knitted snake, a drawstring bag I made for the boys, fairy wings from the midsummer night celebration, and a playcrown. Oh, and a glow necklace from Halloween.
Here's a close-up of the little bag. I'm becoming very enamored of drawstring bags just lately.
And what does it hold? Puppets and finger puppets. They were needing a little bag to contain them . . .

what the green pumpkin brought

Just thought I'd share what the Green Pumpkin brought the boys this year. These are all wonderful--the boys are really enjoying them (and the mama too).

Hedgie's Surprise--we first discovered this one in the library and Dieter was captivated it by it. A hedgehog helps a hen defend her eggs from a rascally tomten. I adore the illustrations by Jan Brett.

Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten--perfect for flu season. I just love Miss Bindergarten and this book is just as sweet and simple as the others with its rhyming text and homey, domestic illustrations.

The Jolly Postman or Other People's Letters--we already had the Jolly Pocket Postman (held over from Faith and Jacob's childhood), which is much more complex (though Dieter loves it). This is the original and much simpler--a hit with Dieter too, though perhaps not as much as the Pocket one.

How Groundhog's Garden Grew--we all adore this one and it is such a great way for children to learn (from a book, anyway) where food comes from. It's sweet and approachable for little ones, but touches on a lot of gardening principals, like pollination and organic gardening. In the end the groundhog treats all his animal friends to a big Thanksgiving dinner. It's adorable.

meatless supper #6

This week for Enviromom's Meatless Supper Club I delved back into the Moosewood Cookbook because I just love how friendly and simple the recipes are (and I adore the hand lettering and the illustrations by Mollie Katzen). Wednesday is usually soup night over here, and I have some barley hanging around that needs to be used up, so I chose the Mushroom-Barley soup. I'm a chronic under-reader of recipes, and to be honest I thought I was going to be making a "cream of mushroom" type of thing. Instead, this is an earthy, simple, mushroomy soup. You have to like mushrooms. I love eating this way and in my ideal world would be eating all earthy like this most of the time (in reality we order out for pizza or get Subway frequently). So how did the family like it? Ken is always up for an experiment, Faith and Dieter didn't like it, and little Rainer, bless his heart, ate some of the broth and all his mushrooms! My boys like to pretend they are animals and Rainer said the mushrooms were his bugs (bugs to be eaten . . .). I served this with pear slices, grapes, and acorn cakelets.

Mushroom-Barley Soup--adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook

1/2 c. barley
6 1/2 c. water
1-3 T. butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 lb. of mushrooms, sliced (I used 2 bags of mushrooms from Trader Joe's--so actually more than a pound)
1/2 t. salt
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. Marsala

Start the barley cooking in 1 1/2 c. water and simmer until tender, 20-30 minutes. Meanwhile, saute the onions in butter in a skillet, then add the mushrooms, garlic, and 1/2 t. salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until everything is very tender, 10-12 minutes. Stir in the soy sauce and Marsala.

Add the saute with all its juices to the pot of barley, along with the remaining water. Simmer another 20 minutes. (The recipe says to add a good grinding of black pepper but I forgot this).

Happy soup night!

novembering the house

On Sunday the little boys and I had fun sweeping through the house and removing all the Halloween stuff. We replaced it with the Thanksgiving decorations--it was fun! I love how the boys get so excited by these little rituals. I am no home decorator at all (I aspire to do better in the future . . .) but it is meaningful to me to see how these little family traditions affect the children. At some level I think they are nurtured by these rituals and hopefully will remember them as they grow and leave.
First thing in the morning we changed the postcard in the little frame, turned the calendar page, and turned the page of the Around the Year book. Dieter is always so excited to do that! We also did a little cleanup of the nature table. That ceramic leaf is something Jacob or Faith made years ago in elementary school. Same with the ceramic owl (made by Jacob).
The little pumpkins are also ceramics from Jacob and Faith. The squirrel nutcracker is something my mom was getting rid of last year, so a grabbed it. I'll have to get some nuts for the boys to crack . . .
Turkey candleholders--also from my mom. These have been around since I was a little girl growing up. I love having them now. Next weekend I'll pick up some candles for them at farmer's market.

Ken and I both really like the idea of observing a month of thankfulness and calm before moving on to the crazy holidays. I think these little changes in the home serve as a good reminder . . .

sunday afternoon

I'm always thinking about and reevaluating how to do my Sundays during the schoolyear. Sundays can be so stressful because of having to get ready for the Monday of a busy workweek. There is SO much to do. In the last year or two I think I've erred on the side of getting too much stuff done on Sunday, in hopes of having a smooth week. This year I'm experimenting with doing less. For example, I'll plan the menus for the week and make sure the shopping is done (earlier in the weekend) but I'm no longer trying to do any cooking in advance on Sunday. I'm letting the little veggie packets slide (they're time consuming). I'm still taking the little ones to farmer's market in the morning and this weekend I think I struck a nice balance of playing with them in the afternoon (and still getting some work done). In the scene above we're eating popcorn made by Faith and playing a matching game. I have to say, everyone had such a good time with that! It was a good reminder for me to slow down. Dieter can play the matching game well now--soon he will be beating Faith and me, I'm sure. Rainer still doesn't totally "get it" but was happy to wander around the perimeter. Sweet times.
Some of my early matches--which I'm showing you because I love these tiles so much.
Sunday afternoon/evening also went well. I started dinner early so I would have time to clean up along the way. In the end, Dieter and I had time to play "the fairy game" (which we just made up) and I was surprised at how much he liked it. Rainer got these blocks for his birthday and has little to no interest in them, but Dieter and I have kept the game going for two evenings now.

The working mama lifestyle is busy and I hate not being the one to drop the kids at school and pick them up (because Ken is here local and I have a long commute), but in truth I like my job and my working is pretty essential to our financial wellbeing. So there it is--I move forward and make the best of all of it, constantly tweaking and reevaluating our routines as necessary.

Thanks for all the waffle suggestions yesterday, there is some good stuff in there!

healthifying our waffles

:: half whole wheat flour and half unbleached all-purpose (instead of all white)
::pure maple syrup, or agave, or blueberry sauce instead of fake syrup (Faith still misses the Aunt Jemima, though)

::freezing the leftovers for midweek breakfasts instead of buying frozen. I always feel good about "made from scratch."

I'd love to hear about healthy breakfast upgrades you've made recently.