All shades of Purple

If I don't come back

2007-02-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

it is because I don't want "the new blogger." So go ahead and say you'd miss me. Oh, right, you won't, because I was never any kind of friend to you, huh? I was actually thinking today about a more personal post but this stupid "new blogger" rubbish has made me feel pretty crabby about the whole effort.
But I also wanted to share some cool mugs I found. Dunoon makes some really cool mugs and they have become an obsession with me. I was wishing for a mate to one very cool mug I have and so I googled the brand stamped on the bottom. Voila! And then I discovered that another mug in my cupboard (my very favorite mug!) is also made by Dunoon. I want all of them except the cat, zodiac and sport ones. Tell me you are hooked too?
Mmh. One more thing. I hate winter.

Parenting Observations

2007-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

1. "Catching up on sleep," "Going to bed early," and "Sleeping late" are all myths.
If the neighbors don't start their pulsing music to interrupt one of these activities, your child will interrupt this foolish behavior. Why on earth would any child want a sane and well rested parent, after all!?*

2. If most of your child's jammies are in the hamper (due to assorted breakfast embellishments), expect a night time accident. If you have been so foolish that day as to change the sheets for no reason, you are seriously asking for trouble. Bonus points if it is cold and you are in the habit of layering jammies. Heaven forbid we have a backup pair on hand. ("Yes, I know these are day clothes, but trust me, you can -and will- sleep in them.")

(*Mild exaggeration for effect, since we do get a reasonable amount of sleep most of the time.)

Enigmatic

2007-01-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

Last night the Eager Helper delivered this gem of a soliloquy: "In the morning I'm going to talk to the Pastry People. But they won't say anything, they will just buy stuff. Turkey and cheese and Cream of Wheat."

The Pastry People?

Friday Photo

2007-01-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

Friday Photo

2007-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I did more in December than make (and eat) cookies. I made doll clothes for the Eager Helper's Christmas present. Two dresses (the red one is sleeveless), two panties, a pair of jammies and a bonnet.
I wish the shot were more overhead to better show off the details, but you'll have to use your imagination. They were quite a lot of work and fun. No, I am not ready to go into business. This kind of craftiness I do only for love. The Eager Helper is thrilled with them and I congratulate myself with how they are helping her develop fine motor skills as well as the unheard of skills called patience and perseverance.

If this post has a point, I promise it isn't "let go and have fun"

2007-01-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

So, I've been doing that whole, "I've been away from my blog to long, what do I post about first?" thing. Here's a break for you, we'll just pretend I was never gone. Not that we are back to Purple Programming since I'm not sure I even remember what that is. Plus, I have an allergy attack/cold/death spell going on here.
But what I wanted to blog about today was this:
1) The Eager Helper comes running into the kitchen with her toy dishes. She holds up a fork and a plate and asks, "Does the fork go on the right or the left?" I show her which is the left side of the plate and she runs happily back to set up her tea party. Except she runs back and forth asking about each piece. Later, when I go into her room and notice absolutely correct place settings for each attendee, I feel a pang of guilt along with the pride. Yes, I want her to be smart and observant, but I was hoping that OCD was not hereditary.

2) Speaking of OCD, the Eager Helper really isn't all that bad. For example, she uses a napkin during mealtime, but not fastidiously. I think there is a certain crumb count that she finds acceptable, as well as a certain level of stickiness. That said, there are some crafts she doesn't get terribly enthusiastic about in an immediate way. Okay. This segue isn't working and I can't keep setting the scenario up so I'll switch gears and just dive right in. We recently checked Apples, Apples, Apples out from the library, and in it, the little girl bunny makes a stamp from an apple core. We tried it today and it was a big hit. Except that I used finger paint to dip the "stamp" in and it was too thick. So it turned into "apple" painting, as she swabbed the little stamp around the paper. And since I try very hard to let craft time be creative (instead of being my usual controlling self) I let her go with the painting. And then as she seemed uncertain about the paint getting on her hands I realized that this was a great way to work her into finger painting at her own pace. I half-heartedly wiped her fingers when she asked me to and she did eventually get caught up in painting enough not to mind so much. And then we had less paint so the stamp started "stamping" a little better and then she was finger painting and then hand painting! Guess what? It didn't hurt either of us to make a mess and have some fun.

Quiz of the stressed desserts

2006-12-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Q. The number of calories I consume in one day is determined by:
a) the number and quality of hours I spend alone with the ~~Jabber Box~~ Eager Helper.
b) the number of words uttered by the ~~Jabber Box~~ Eager Helper.
c) the number of extra nano-seconds my husband works.

A. The choices are too simplistic. An equation is needed!! (a+b) x (c+n)= 1/2 the calories consumed in a day - chocolate calories. (Where n is the number of pounds I currently need to lose.) I apologize for the poor . . . syntax? of the equation.

Invasion

2006-12-08T05:34:00.000-08:00

For the first time since we've been married, in the smallest kitchen we've ever had, I have finally (almost?) lived up to the Christmas cookie expectations of my husband. Don't get me wrong, I've always loved baking and eating cookies but circumstances have never been perfect. We've never, ever had Christmas anywhere near our home nor had friends and family close enough to share the bounty with. It never made sense before now. Plus, there was (my) gainful employment, then a very needy baby, and finally an impending move. This Christmas I find myself in a glorified storage unit where there isn't room for a spare particle of dust, much less the rag to dust it off. My gainful employment is marginal. And my fussy baby has turned into the Cookie Hoover aka the Eager Helper who loves making cookies and is at least not un-helpful.
So this year, I had the husband make a list of top favorites. This year? We finally made a gingerbread house. We have made sugar cookies, linzer cookies, russian tea cookies, buckeyes and roasted almonds. I ended up buying some biscotti instead of making them (biscotti is the one cookie I have usually made these last several Christmases). We still plan to make candy cane cookies and zebra cookies once my back recovers from the hostile takeover we had yesterday. Take it from me: you do not need or want a double batch of gingerbread men invading your home.

Not there yet

2006-12-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning I sat listening to the weather and traffic report across the breakfast table from my husband. A winter storm was beginning and all the feelings of terror and panic I've been conditioned to came rushing back. I try again to memorize every feature of the face I love. I try to record every word he says and the sound of his voice as a stockpile against possible loss. And all those bargaining prayers start before he is even on the road. "If you will just let him live . . ." I know it is melodramatic and ludicrous, but doesn't everyone do it? In times of near crisis, don't we all think "if this is the last time I see you . . ."?

I discovered the fragility of life early, when my dad nearly died in an accident. I replay all those emotions each time it rains, or snows or traffic is snarly and sometimes I am afraid. On such a morning, when I kiss my husband goodbye and think "I can't live without you," I remember my mom talking about the accident years later. While my dad was fighting for his life, she prayed. And as she prayed, she said she finally came to a place where she could say "Even if you take him, I will still trust you. You are enough."

Purple Programming

2006-11-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

Loyal readers are, I suppose, heartbroken at the hiatus of our usual programming. Where now do you go to scoff at menus, laugh at "photography" or weep over pitiful book reviews? I regret that I cannot promise you anything in the way of dependable programming here. The current reasons are multitude if not convincing.
First: The library that holds the books I desire to read has a lamentable 2 week checkout period. That would have been just right back in the day, but it now takes me 2 weeks to read a chapter. Sadly, I am not the only one who wants to read It Takes a Parent so I cannot renew indefinitely as was my original plan.
Second: My camera was damaged and I will be picking it up from the shop this week only to take family/holiday pictures that won't be shared.
Third: I have started a part-time job, weekends only. This is actually my weakest excuse.
Fourth: I am up to my knees in craftiness for Christmas presents. Maybe that will be a post later. Maybe even pictures. A thought on craftiness: elastic is the very devil.

Now that you have waded through all that I will reward you with some recommendations.
First: the book of Ezra is a gold-mine of names (not for naming purposes!) to read to your toddler. Last night I was reading the third chapter (from a preschool translation) to the Eager Helper and she was quite charmed with Hebrew creativity. Today I expect the following names (which she can say with remarkable accuracy) to figure largely in her little gallop-around-the-coffee-table ditty routine: Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, Jeshua, Henadad and Jozadak.
Second: we are thoroughly enjoying a BBC adaptation of Dicken's Bleak House that I found recommended here.

When I'm not smelling like cheap car fresheners

2006-11-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

I think I'll be smelling like Suave's new seasonal body wash "Whipped Cocoa." Not necessarily because I want to smell like a mug of hot chocolate but because it is a decidedly less dangerous way of inhaling chocolate. Figuratively speaking, of course.

If I had a day that I could give you

2006-11-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wore a sleeveless blouse, a pair of shorts and flip-flops. My windows were open. Today is the twenty-seventh of October, and though it is cloudy, the forecast promises a return of sunny skies by noon. Each day this month has been a precious gift to me as I wake to find my world has not ended in a blanket of snow during the night. I lived the last five winters above the 45th parallel and experienced Seasonal Affective Disorder each year. As I sit here on the eve of my first winter below the 45th parallel I cannot find the words to completely express my thankfulness that I have begun a new chapter of life. It's not that I ever wanted to live in a tropical paradise of perpetual summer. What I have craved was simply the sun and a winter that did not mean imprisonment, fear and isolation. Throughout the last 5 years I have repeatedly tried to write about my experiences but all such attempts quickly dissolved into melodrama and painful gasps of disjointed words. Some examples:

Living there, being starved of light, life and warmth became another kind of asthma for me. At best, every breath is an effort you aren't sure it is worth to keep living a life that has to be focused on basic existence. At worst it is breathless hysteria and panic, desperately wishing to die.

I want to have something worth seeing out my window instead of the constant deathly reminder of dying, stillness and dark. Misery, pain, nothingness. Constant, repetitive never ending wretchedness. Only mitigated . . . mitigated? By stabs of panic and fear.

When I say that I have a notebook full of this delightful fare and worse, you can count yourself fortunate that I chose the "best" examples. But how, I wonder, can one write beautifully or even think clearly about such pain? Now that it is over, I feel as though I should be able to look back and describe it even a little so that, if nothing else, my joy and delight in the sunshine will have a context. But the past is now mostly a blur to me, the winters all combined into a memory of endless darkness, loathing and fear. The descriptions I can write today are no more clear than those written in the midst of it.

I remember each summer marveling that somehow the darkness was over and at the same time feeling even more desperate because I knew another winter was already on its way. I don't know how I survived. I really didn't think I would.

I would like to tie this post up with a profound, tidy paragraph summing up the spiritual significance I have found through my struggle; I've tried for a week now to do so. I did learn some truths but so incompletely that it isn't honest to say, "Oh, God was teaching me to trust Him blindly and accept that He is in control. I learned that God is faithful to His children." Those words are true, but I haven't learned that at all! I look at the picture (above) that I took last year and marvel that 5 years actually produced so little growth.

Another reason to avoid Purple

2006-10-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

While vacuuming my car today I thought the "fragrance island" at the car wash was a little overpowering. When I got home to unload my groceries I realized that "fragrance island" was among my purchases. Turns out that the cheap no-name dryer sheets I bought smell like icky, car air-fresheners. How did I not notice this while in the store? You know what this means? Of course you do. My family will smell like cheap, car air-fresheners for approximately 400 loads of laundry. Joy.

Monday Fine Motor Skills

2006-10-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

Meringue cookies are difficult for a 2.5 year old to make. Obviously, she can't hold the mixer or "fold in" chocolate chips. She can dump ingredients and help sift. But her favorite job of "blooping" the cookies onto the cookie sheet is harder than usual with a sticky, fragile dough. Have you ever considered the coordination it takes to eject a blob of cookie dough from a spoon using (only!) your index finger? No? Well then, maybe you should try to coach a toddler through it.
In any case, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies are lovely. As are sticky, plump toddler fists.
Last week the Eager Helper assisted me in assembling a fun little snack called Kit-Kat Bars. She tiled the bottom of a pan with club crackers, crushed graham crackers and stirred together melted chocolate chips and peanut butter. They were a delicious treat for a family cookout.
I can't think of anything else interesting we've made lately. Probably because the Eager Helper is sitting here in my lap wanting to pretend like she is a "tiny little baby."
Oh, we made apple butter instead of a Tarte Tatin. Did I already mention that?
Not super coherent here, I know you are all offended.

Friday Photos

2006-10-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

Gloriously carmelized apples in a Tarte Tatin I made about 13 months ago. Why didn't I think of it this year!?

An indicator of what to expect this week?

2006-10-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Eager Helper is struggling with a bowl of scrambled eggs. Since I hear a whine creeping into her voice, I attempt to encourage her using our usual humorous approach to difficulties. "Tell those eggs to jump on the fork. Say, 'Come on little eggs, l want to eat you.'" As if to refresh my memory about how this household works, she replies wearily. "Eggs don't have muscles, Mommy."

Monday Food Matters

2006-10-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here is a pretty easy meal I came up with. Slice cherub (or cherry or grape) tomatoes in half lengthwise and place cut side up on a foil lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, crushed garlic, parsley and basil then dribble olive oil over them. Place under the broiler (not too close) until the tomatoes soften and they begin to bubble (do not let them scorch!). After they cool a little transfer them cut side down onto pressed out pizza dough. Use your fingers to wipe up any leftover oil and rub it over the tomatoes and crust. Sprinkle with grated mozzarella cheese and bake your pizza at 400 until the cheese is bubbly to your specifications.
And I also tried a recipe for Laban or Yogurt Cheese. It was too easy for words! Line a sieve with a coffee filter and dump a bunch of yogurt into it. Set it over a container to drain, cover and refrigerate 24 hours or so. Dump the liquid, transfer the laban to a dish, flavor to taste and use as a spread or dip. I used plain yogurt and added dill and parsley. We used it in place of sour cream on our baked potatoes. I was hoping to make bagels to spread it on. It would be great on crackers or with veggies. I can just imagine how scrumptious it would be using vanilla yogurt with strawberries (fresh or preserves?) stirred in!
This has been a good food week. Plum Dumplings, Steak, Chocolate Cream Pie, Chocolate Chip Cookies. I turned out an excellent batch of bread this morning. Into one loaf I rolled chopped apples, brown sugar, nutmeg and butter. I can't wait for breakfast except that tonight we are having Emperor's Pancakes for dinner. They are puffy, light and delicious.
May you have as good a week, my 3 readers!

"Maybe I can wait a little longer" OR "Just when I thought one wasn't enough"

2006-10-13T05:17:00.000-07:00

This has been a rough week. Severe crabbiness struck early in the week, followed by a mysterious fever and stomach ache on Wednesday. Sleep has been elusive. Accomplishments have been meager. The Eager Helper is beginning to feel better (as of yesterday evening, anyway) but we are a little ragged over here. This morning, for example, I was awakened at 2:15, 3:30 and 4:30. "Mommyyy, I need you!" And being told that it was not yet morning, she wept even more bitterly. It almost feels like she is playing the lead role in a skit directed by God, Himself to cure my pouting. After all, a week of her sick routine is nothing compared to the first six months with a new baby.

The Leopard Hat reviewed by Rusty Reiter

2006-10-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

When I recently decided to "just start reading" again, I headed for the biography section of the local library. I was vaguely hoping to find this book or at least a biography of a figure I admire. Instead, the cover of The Leopard Hat by Valerie Steiker caught my eye. Since one is not supposed to judge a book by its cover, I was surprised by what a good read it turned out to be. It is a memoir in which the lives of the author and her elegant, Belgian immigrant mother are intertwined around remembered stories and family objects. The stories and "tchotchkes" of the author's past become metaphors for telling her own story: the magic childhood her mother created for her and the painful loss of her mother as she, herself is on the brink of womanhood. This is a verbally rich volume with vivid details. On the negative side, I must say that in describing a very privileged upbringing, the author seems occasionally self-conscious and distant. My only other substantive criticism is that some of the metaphors seemed weak or stretched. I did, however, find myself appreciating the fact that she was consistent in using them as a framework throughout the book.
This was an easy read because of a compelling story and effective usage of the "show, don't tell" technique. But I didn't feel brain cells dying for lack of use either. It is the perfect "fluffy" book a college educated girl can read without feeling guilty, and is especially apropos for a young mother.

Here are some of my favorite (long) passages:

It occurred to me, for the first time, how completely bizarre it is that we keep things. Almost all families do, and no one gives it a second thought. You walk into someone's' house and you see high-school trophies, wedding albums, perhaps on the mantel a pair of bronzed baby shoes - every form of remembrance. Suddenly it struck me as unbelievable that we bring all and sundry back to where we live, surrounding ourselves with reflections of our journeys, past achievements, and personal taste, loading our walls, our shelves, our drawers with objects we love or that suggest to the world that we ourselves are loved (or at least appreciated), even though we know the fate of things which is to fade with age and ultimately wither away. As I had learned all too well from having lost my mother and seen her belongings begin to disintegrate, nothing on this earth is permanent. In the face of this, I hadn't considered before how much faith it takes to create a home - to save your child's first scrawls, to come back from a trip and frame an especially good shot. (p. 250-251)

With a shock I realized that my mother's routine note leaving had occurred as a result of a request I had made to her at the age of seven. It made me think about the startling symbiosis that exists between mothers and daughters. I had continually felt her molding me as a daughter, but it hadn't occurred to me that this process went both ways, that I had also been shaping her as a mother. (p. 263)

Monday Food Matters

2006-10-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Not much going on in Purpleville that strays beyond the ordinary and average this week. I do have some apples dissolving into apple butter in my crockpot and they fit the cool rainyish weather outside. Last week I made a pan of Rosie's Brownies and sprinkled some Hershey's Toffee Bits over them in the last 10 minutes of baking. They melted just enough to make a nice butter-crunch topping. To save myself from them, I wrapped tiny portions of what I didn't inhale in saran and froze them. Divine!
There was an odd pasta salad last week, now that I think of it. It was to have been a chicken/grape/apple/almond/poppy seed salad over lettuce leaves but I ran out of lettuce. The pasta made it all too heavy and with no fresh, crisp, lettuce counterpoint it was just weird.
Well, it is time to pop some bread in the oven, so you can all go back to missing me.

Sigh

2006-10-05T05:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still here. Eating only red m&m's gives you heartburn just as quickly as eating any other color. I thought you'd like to know. Eating half a pan of brownies is just as bad. Did I say bad? Brownies are never bad and I hope you already knew that.
One of my reasons for starting this blog was so that I could learn to write again. I think I used to write decently . . . This week I've been working on a book review which has me very depressed because the words just don't flow like they used to. My writing style was always to sit down and just write the words down any way they came to me (and they did) and then come back through and rearrange, refine and edit (and edit some more). Writing wasn't effortless but I did have a method that worked. I guess it has been too long since I really wrote anything because I just can't get the words to come anymore. I am hoping that if I keep after it, I'll pick it back up. But it is monumentally difficult.

Sources

2006-09-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Obviously, I didn't have time to post a book review yesterday. Nor will I have the time today or tomorrow. Instead of my fascinating opinions and summaries I will provide a source I use for finding good books for the Eager Helper when we visit the library. I look at the literature selections for the younger grades at Veritas Press. It is a very good place to start. They list and carry the same type of books I look for: moral, engaging, intelligent and well illustrated. Of course, Veritas carries books for all ages and subjects and I foresee a long and good relationship between us.

Monday Food Matters

2006-09-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Last week's Lemon Cookies did turn out well. Oh, my! They are excellent with tea. Please come to tea! (Except we've eaten them all by now.) I also made some pita bread to have on hand for houseguests arriving later this week. I adore pita bread! It is great for sandwich-like lunch or piling leftover meat, veggies and sauce in/on for a frilled-up, impromptu, leftover dinner. Last night I made some crepes for a light dinner. We filled them with chopped fresh apples and pureed cottage cheese. Not exactly Martha Stewart, but tasty and creative for a Sunday night dinner, if I do say so myself.
Funny toddler story for the day: I let the Eager Helper watch and assist with the preparation of tonight's chicken and rice. She dumped rice, stirred in cream of mushroom and milk and then provided narration. "Put that piece of chicken over here. They are talking together. They are talking together. They are swimming in the milk. The papa, mommy and baby are swimming. [And then I covered the casserole with foil.] Now they are going to bed. Night-night! They are going to bed. [And then I put it in the oven.] They are sleeping in the crib. I will come with you while they sleep in the crib."
What a disturbing little commentary! Seconds, anyone?

Parenting Survival Tips Bonus

2006-09-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

As early as possible, begin narrating your activities for your child. "I am chopping the red tomato for our salad." "We are walking to our car." "I am putting your blue hat on your head." I read this tip in a magazine either while pregnant or in my early parenting days. I remember sagely repeating the advice to my husband. "It is supposed to make your children smarter, more aware, more verbal, etc. Plus, when they start asking about every move you make you are already used to telling them." It works. I didn't think he was paying attention (I dished out a lot of advice back then) but he reminded me of this gem a couple weeks ago when I was complaining that our Eager Helper wanted to know what I was doing if I so much as brushed a stray eyelash off my cheek. "Well!" I crabbed back, "I sure fell off that wagon in a hurry!"
Sing. When you get stressed, just sing. It doesn't matter whether you think you can, your child isn't going to be comparing you to Caroline Ashton. Pick an easy tune like Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush. Throw in your own words "I would like to get some sleep, get some sleep, get some sleep." When the Eager Helper was around age 1, I heard an expert talk about how early a child's brain tunes in to music and how it soothes and stimulates, but I had already found the magic for myself. Do you know what else? You can't scream and sing at the same time. Or maybe you can, I don't know. Of course, the down side of this is that your child will eventually come to believe that you know songs about everything and will expect you to sing rather more frequently than you might be comfortable with.
When (not if) your child begins repeating everything they say, don't lose your cool. Start counting (in your head) the number of times they repeat the word or phrase. This takes your mind off the torture of hearing "Boohoo, what are we going to do?" on eternal repeat and turns it into a scientific activity. Plus, your husband will take you more seriously when he comes home if you say "Did you know that Roger repeats himself approximately 7.6 times?" than if you run sobbing out the door yelling "Roger repeats everything a million times and I can't take it any more!!!"
This tip is one I wish I would have heard before the Eager Helper was born. It is my insane advice based on freakish personal space issues. Before you have children, or as early as possible, have any visible moles or birthmarks removed. Then they can't be pinched or picked at and, most importantly, they can't become security features.

Any other survival tips you would like to share?

Friday Photo

2006-09-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

Knitting! I am not at all good at it, but I enjoy it very much. I like to think that if I do it more, maybe I will get better?

What do you do when m&m's don't make it all better

2006-09-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

Our offer on the dream house was rejected. Maybe it is only the red m&m's that make it all better. I'll get back to you on that.

Story Time

2006-09-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

I try to take the Eager Helper to story time at the local library every other week. She loves learning new songs and accompanying motions and hearing different stories from a different voice. Okay, so maybe I don't know her exact feelings and I should refrain from anything beyond telling you that she is always enthusiastic about attending story time. I like learning new songs and hand motions! Due to some remodeling, they didn't have toddler story time yesterday and we were crushed. Hey, I like to get out too! After drying our metaphorical tears we began looking for new books to take home. And the first book she saw (and put in the bag) was a copy of one we had just returned on our way in. James Mayhew has five (?) wonderful books for introducing children to famous works of art. Katie and the Mona Lisa is my personal favorite. On their days out together Katie's grandma frequently takes her to the local art museum. Adventures unfold as Katie steps inside such paintings as Cafe Terrace at Night, Girl With a Watering Can and Primavera. The books rely on a lot of action and are short on the specifics of art, focusing rather on giving children a basic familiarity with a few works of art and their respective artists. These are fun, colorful and educational books, can you ask for more?

Monday Food Matters

2006-09-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Good stuff we had this last week:
- The Eager Helper and I made chocolate cupcakes after she failed to recognize a cupcake in a set of toy food. Doesn't that seem wrong? So we fixed that mistake and in so doing I also found that the chocolate frosting recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box is a good basic frosting.
- Sweet potatoes are in season. I think they are the reason God invented September, if you will pardon the irreverence. Baked sweet potatoes and meatloaf for dinner every night this month? Maybe. Seriously, it is so good to again live somewhere that they don't try to pass off yams as sweet potatoes. Yams are okay but they are yams, my dear confused Midwesterners! (I know, this sounds like an argument waiting to happen, so go read this before you start in on me.)
- After lunch today we mixed up some dough for Glazed Lemon Cookies out of this recipe book. Sure is tasty dough! They are a buttery refrigerator cookie so I don't know yet how good they are. Will slice and bake them here in another hour while the Eager Helper naps.

Interesting stuff we had this last week:
- I made this Dahl one night for dinner and it was just too different for me to like the first time. Nobody at the table refused to eat it though, and when I served the leftovers, my husband was disappointed to get just one helping. I guess I'll try it again and be more careful to ensure that I don't double the cinnamon as I might have done this time. And yet . . . it seems like a waste of sweet potatoes if I don't madly love it.

The Last Cowboy Picture

2006-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

No, I do not believe this is the last cowboy. It will, however, be the last picture of this genre that I post. Maybe Friday Photo could be called No Content Friday, because it is seriously the easiest way to fill this space. If I were a serious photographer I wouldn't say that, right? But if I were a serious writer would I even be doing . . . this?

One shelf up

2006-09-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

I don't remember learning to read or a time when I could not. I think I have always loved to read, and yet I have a memory of my exasperated mother shoving a book into my hands and saying, "Try it!" It was a time when the work of picking out a book was so intimidating and the possibility of dissapointment too great that I fell into this lazy inertia. I obediently read the book offered to me (though I couldn't tell you what it was) and began stumbling into a habit of reading. My literature curriculum gradually started coinciding with my interests more and as a selection caught my imagination I would raid the local library for every work by that author, filling every spare minute immersed in other worlds. Off the top of my head I remember such incongruities as Edna Ferber, Homer, Elswyth Thane, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Katherine Mansfield, Jack London, Elizabeth George Speare, Shakespeare and George Eliot. (An odd, incomplete sampling, I agree!) I devoured author after author as I muddled through junior-high and high-school. College was like a reward of sorts, getting to devote so much of my serious school time to what had only been a hobby and, to a degree, even choosing a substantial portion of the required reading. I read and interacted with the text at hand, my friends read and we discussed it, lived, breathed and argued it. I thought I would always go on like that, reveling in and wrestling with the thoughts of others. But sometime after the birth of our daughter I revisited that sad pre-teen funk of not knowing what I was in the mood for, yearning to read and being frustrated by every book I opened. I missed the stimulation and interaction, the opening and sorting of my mind. Recently I have been challenged and inspired by the example of two close friends of mine who have not let reading fall by the wayside as their own lives are complicated - one with two children, the other with her work. I am re-acquiring the habit of reading and hope to review some of what I read here. I hope you polished lit. types will bear with my terrible punctuation and distracted editing. I will try to get my act together as I go along (and as I someday find my favorite reference books).

This summer I slowly worked through Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson. It is an excellent book that I would have liked to "review" more thoroughly here but as I have been reading other things since then I cannot do it justice without devoting more time to the effort than I have readily available. I would highly recommend it to anyone considering homeschooling or anyone who is feeling hesitant about enrolling their child in public school. It isn't a hyperventilated attack on the public school for teaching evolution or ending school prayer. It isn't an argument for using the Bible as your only textbook, either. I saw two main points to the book:
1. Give your child a classical education. This seems to me a fancy way of saying that we equip our children to learn rather than give them mere "mental dexterity (page 63)" or facts. I like the quote on page 106, "There is a difference between being equipped to do well in Trivial Pursuit and being educated."
2. Give your child a Christian education. Not, as I said above, in the sense that we use the Bible as our only textbook.

The Christian educator's job is not to require the students to spend all their time gazing at the sun. Rather, we want them to examine everything else in the light the sun provides. It would be utmost folly to try to blacken the sun in order to be able to study the world around us "objectively." Because all truth comes from God, the universe is coherent. Without God, particulars have no relationship to other particulars. Each subject has no relationship to any other subject. Christian educators must reject this understanding of the universe as a multiverse; the world is more than an infinite array of absurd facts. The fragmentation of knowledge must therefore be avoided. (page 63)

A new link!

2006-09-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Check it out! I have added a new website over on the sidebar. I can't figure out how to do the link (above) over there so I am posting this note too. I just found this neat resource today and am sharing the treat with you, my vast readership. I can't wait to hit the craft store so that the Eager Helper and I can make this.

Monday Food Matters

2006-09-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

In the Oven and On the Table was beginning to become tedious. In the first place, it was hard to remember what I had made for dinner a week ago (yes, I could have worked on the post throughout the week but would you?). In the second place, as I began to see the repetition in our menus that was already there I thought about how I would be skimming it if I were a reader. So I am thinking I will only touch on highlights of the week or go on fun food rants.
So.
Yogurt. A few weeks back I mentioned making my own yogurt. Today as I was incubating another batch it occurred to me that I might have sounded purist or snobby. Actually, I am a parsimonious, purist snob - thank you very much! Did you know that (when milk is $2.20 per gallon) I can make a quart of yogurt for fifty-five cents?! A quart of commercial yogurt costs approximately $1.76 around here! I can also tailor the sweetness, fat content and flavor of our yogurt. ~~So that is my reasoning and anyone reading this who doesn't quit buying commercial yogurt is stupid.~~
Whee! Was that better than a weekly menu? If not, I'll just keep blabbering.
Um . . .
The Labor Day Lemon Meringue Pie that I was so looking forward to was not a highlight. It might have been, except that Meringue Pies do not travel well and it was a Lemon Meringue Soup by the time it was served. My sister and husband most gallantly asked for servings even though my sister's Brownie Pizza was obviously more appealing (and it was tastier too). To give myself credit, I prepared the meringue the day of the party but then it was transported rather roughshod in a vehicle that ended up running some errands before arriving at the party destination. Word to the wise: "Eat your meringue pies at home! Or better yet, buy a can of whipping cream to pipe over it since whipping cream is vastly superior to raw egg whites."

Friday Photo

2006-09-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

You are dazzled, no? Do you prefer this to a rant about buying a toothbrush for a toddler? I have one if you get really desperate this afternoon.

Bookshelf

2006-09-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

Shortly after moving this spring, the Eager Helper and I fell in love with our new local library. One of the first books we checked out was Corduroy, by Don Freeman. It is the story of a little bear in green overalls who "once lived in the toy department of a large department store." After the store closes one evening he sets off to search the store for his missing button which he thinks will help him find a home. We were instantly captivated by the detailed lithograph illustrations and imaginative story. For weeks and months after the first checkout, the Eager Helper asked for it each time we visited the library. And the first time we rode an escalator after reading it, she beamed up at me, "I'm riding an escalator just like Corduroy!"

We also enjoyed many of Don Freeman's other books: A Pocket for Corduroy, Dandelion, Earl the Squirrel, Manuelo the Playing Mantis, Gregory's Shadow, Pet of the Met, Norman the Doorman and Beady Bear. (I only linked to our very favorites though they are all good.)

Friday Photo

2006-09-01T07:02:00.000-07:00

While this is a nice idea, don't count on the "Friday Photo" becoming a regular feature. I have so many things I want to post about . . . so many places I'd like to take this blog. But, alas, I am lazy and my priorities are skewed (Food, duh! And maybe clean clothes.). By the way, why are you wasting your time here? If you really don't have anything better to do, let me direct you to some quality sites. Hang on, I can't figure that out with all the help I have right here and now.

Oh, and don't even think about asking for personal pictures. Not gonna happen my friend!

Food? Lemon Meringue Pies and a new French Bread recipe. Breathless excitement! I knew you were secretly more interested in that too.

Stating the obvious

2006-08-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Potty training is progressing here in Purpleville. It has been easier than anticipated. Another surprise is how much more infuriating accidents are on this end of it than they were at first. I guess I expected them at first, since it was a new skill being learned. But now that I feel the Eager Helper understands it and now that I know how capable she is it fills me with inexpressible rage when she fails. My mother says we'll just have days like that. By days, I am beginning to dread that she means we can have a day with no success right after going days without an accident. I had naively hoped that a bad day would be more like one, maybe two, accidents every three or four days. Was I the only one who didn't know about this phenomenon? Who knew that things getting better could make life harder! Maybe those are the blogs or "toddler updates" I've missed. Sorry for boring you, my vast readership!

Ask Purple

2006-08-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Reader number 2 recently emailed this question: "How DO you manage so much home-made food every day?"
Good question, reader number 2! Maybe I should give you reader number 1's email address and he can ~~disabuse you of these misconceptions~~ answer this question from a less biased perspective than mine.
There are a couple of ways that I manage it, actually. Are you ready?
1. It looks like more than it is. I make up names for things that are more thrown together than they might seem. For example: chicken pasta salad is usually chopped up leftover chicken, thrown together with diced cheese and pasta that has been cooked with some vegetable or other. Splash on your favorite salad dressing!
2. I try to cook in such a way that there are always leftovers. The trick is that sometimes "leftovers" look the same the next time they are served and sometimes they are completely re-incarnated as in the chicken pasta salad example above. Re-incarnation is a beautiful thing.
3. I love to cook. Not because I am some special domestic person looking down her nose - it is just the way I'm made. I can't help it that I have a passion for something practical. I am in awe of people who are athletic, who love to run, hike, play frisbee or exercise, people who are good at it. They don't do it effortlessly, but their love/enjoyment of it makes it less of "I'm going to work out this morning" and more something they take for granted. Each of us is good at something (I am not saying that I am the best cook, - mercy no! - just that I enjoy it.), right?
4. I've had a lot more practice than most my age. To begin with, my mother was one of the few in her generation that did not fall for the new "mix" fad or the myth that being in the kitchen was somehow less worth her time than a career. She approached cooking as a way to minister to others; to nourish, encourage and delight them. She recognized it as an art form in which she could express herself and thrill in the variety of God's creation. My mother passed that vision along to me with all the lessons and opportunity to practice. Because of various circumstances in our family life, I began making one or more meal every week at the age of 11. I was given quite a bit of latitude and took on more responsibility as I gained skill and confidence.

And that, Reader #2, I hope answers your question without too much excess.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-08-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

Monday: Baked a loaf of bread. Dinner was Indian Lentils and Brown Rice.
Tuesday: Dinner was Balsamic Beef and Apple Salad.
Wednesday: Dinner was a fun experiment! I wrapped some bread dough from the freezer around some leftover chopped roast combined with bbq sauce and shredded cheese.
Thursday: Sweet and Sour broccoli and Beef over Brown Rice for dinner.
Friday: The Eager Helper and I baked a Mocha Fudge Pudding Cake in the morning. While the Eager Helper napped, I made Chocolate Swirl Sour Cream Coffee Cake. To die for! Dinner was made up of various leftovers, suitably small in quantity so that we could stuff ourselves with Cake!
Saturday: Pizza for dinner!
Sunday: Leftover Pizza for dinner.

Shoes

2006-08-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Women are supposed to be better at multi-tasking than men. Mothers, even more so, I always thought of my own. And yet there are daily mistakes in my life that seem to prove otherwise. Do you think my husband will understand how I omitted an ingredient in a favorite recipe because of the Eager Helper’s . . . uh, “help?” Will the loan officer we are working with assume I am a dingy blond because I initially forgot to mention 1) The certificate of deposit that constitutes most of our down payment, 2) A moderate sized loan, 3) A small loan? My husband was mildly irritated – for him. He wants to understand but until you’ve tried to fill out a loan application to the tune of a toddler’s “If you’re bored and you know it, whine a lot!” I don’t think you have a full grasp of the challenge.

Guest Blogger

2006-08-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

We had a funny parenting experience last week that I just couldn't coherently write about. Maybe because it didn't directly involve me. My husband is often a better writer than myself and this is how he described it:

"We had entered [an antique] mall and were looking around. By me, I mean my wife and parents. My duty, on which I focused most attentively, was to keep the little jelly bean from destroying anything. And I was doing a good job, really. . . until I found some stamps. These kept me focused just long enough that when I heard a rustle, I had images of broken crystal dancing in my head. (Who is stupid enough to put stamps next to crystal? Don't they know how dangerous that is?) Turning around to prevent our daughter from doing more damage, I saw she hadn't destroyed anything, but rather, had turned herself around in her stroller, and grabbed a Dr. Pepper can from the steering consul. She was muttering to herself "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good!" while licking the top of the open can."

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-08-22T01:01:00.000-07:00

Monday: For our dinner I chopped up leftover chicken. We stuffed it in pita bread with some lettuce, poured plain yogurt over it and sprinkled with oregano and crushed red pepper.
Tuesday: We had a repeat of Monday night's dinner but on tortillas.
Wednesday: I made another batch of yogurt in the morning. Still using Sunday night's chicken leftovers, I made chicken pasta salad for dinner. Is it my imagination or do I make it frequently?
Thursday: I made some granola in the morning. For dinner we had Pizza Beans. The Eager Helper loves helping sort beans and I love that she is good at it and old enough to understand "don't eat that, it is yucky until we cook it." I still think if I left her in a room full of dried beans for more than 1 minute she would try one, but it is nice to include her in daily tasks with reasonable safety. Just before dinner she helped me again by mixing up some sugar cookie dough.
Friday: The Eager Helper and I spent all morning rolling out and cutting sugar cookies. Then we had to decorate them with pink and blue frosting. It took all morning. She is getting to be less of a hindrance in the kitchen as her fine motor skills improve, and the desire of this child to help in the kitchen is mighty! I gave her a bath :~D and lunch and then she took a very long and sound nap. Leftover Pizza Beans on tortillas for dinner.
Saturday: No big surprise, we had pizza for dinner. However, half the dough was used for cinnamon sticks. Who says I love my rut?
Sunday: Roast for dinner with green beans and one carrot. I love carrots but something about my fridge scares them into premature molding so we don't eat them much. Anybody have suggestions?

Just how big is that backyard?

2006-08-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

There seems to be an accepted alternate spelling for the word "huge."
If you are a realtor, feel free to spell it "hugh."

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-08-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

Oh the malaise and tiredness as I sit here on Thursday afternoon. Too much scrubbing. The dear in-laws arrive this evening and our living room wall is bedecked with a crayon "banner" made by myself and the eager helper. (Ah, Eager Helper, I think I have found our daughter's name for this blog.)
I am going to try to do the weekly food post here just so that you can all gag and then congratulate yourself and possibly blackmail me with the information herein. "Yes in-laws, she had royal goodies and a sparkling (storage unit) apartment to welcome you, but do you know how she fed her family the week of your arrival?"
Monday: I made some "Guilt Free Brownies." I can't actually remember if I made these on Sunday or Monday but they were good. They are made with Gerber Prune Puree in place of most of the butter and some egg. You could taste the prune flavor but the fudgey texture was great and they were chocolatey flavored too. I guess I'd have to compare their stats to the stats of my more favorite regular recipes to decide how worth it they are. I created something rather like a Hamburger Helper dinner for us. It was very easy and pretty quick. I was quite surprised with the results. That is to say it was tasty, not just easy. I browned and drained a pound (mol) of hamburger meat, added 3/4 cup brown rice, 2 cups (mol) of water and simmered it for 30 minutes. Then I dumped in a can of petite diced tomatoes (I have fallen in love with Red Gold Petite Diced Tomatoes, especially their Chipotle flavored ones which I used for this.) and some sliced black olives. I had hoped for enough leftovers for another meal but it was an awfully big hit.
Tuesday: I couldn't tell you what on earth I did on Tuesday, only that as dinner time approached I began to say "gah!" I could not come up with dinner ideas. The Eager Helper loves rotini ("curly noodles") no matter what I do to it, so I boiled some of that and thought I'd add veggies and some vinegrette. I threw some frozen black eyed peas in with the pasta and asked the bread winner to pick up a can of corn when he stopped for milk. Alas, there was no corn at the dairy store of choice. So. Admit it, you are saying "gah!" now. It wasn't all that bad actually. The Eager Helper only half-heartedly avoided the black eyed peas, and when called on it, didn't argue with finishing them. I can't come up with a fancy name for you though. Um. Black Eyed Pea Pasta Vinegrette?
Wednesday: Made some Whole-Wheat Bread in the a.m. and some divine Sacher Cookies in the afternoon. Maybe they will cancel each other out?? Leftover "Hamburger Helper" and leftover Pasta Weirdness Salad for dinner.
Thursday: Baked another loaf of bread this morning so we will have lots of fresh bread for sandwiches. I'm not a snob, really but I just hate buying bread. The Eager Helper mixed up bread crumbs and spices for meatballs so that we can have spaghetti for dinner.
Friday: Out for dinner at the German restaurant we recently discovered.
Saturday: Simple salad for dinner since we ate a late lunch out.
Sunday: I made a pie with my first oil crust. The crust was a disaster and I don't want to talk about it just yet. I filled half of the crust with apple, the other with strawberry rhubarb. It was an okay pie. Then I made an Indian dinner for my in-laws that was really easy but garnered much praise. It consisted of my standard Spicy Baked Chicken (thank you Madhur Jaffrey), some brown rice cooked in the microwave and Madhur Jaffrey's "Dry" Okra.

mini-posts

2006-08-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is all I have time for! Hastily edited and off the top of my head, here is what I am thinking about:

1. Thank goodness I didn’t get around to posting yesterday. It was going to be about how well potty training is going. Just thinking about it caused disaster in that department; I shudder to think what would have happened if I had actually articulated our progress. Dare I leave the word progress in this post even?

2. When you move from a 2,000+ sq. ft. home to a 900 sq. ft apartment you can’t make it look like anything but the storage unit it is. (“No, that isn’t a stack of boxes, it is a designer night-stand imported from Uruguay!”)

3. I had planned on writing about my insane cleaning efforts more, but I was, well . . cleaning, you know. Plus the little tyke is miffed about all my energy being directed away from her and the whining really stifled all creative energy when I did put the scrub brush down. It would have been fun to talk about scrubbing the ceiling (“Did the past tenant have a turkey fryer in here or just pop popcorn without the lid?”) even if I couldn’t make my OCD sound as convincing or hysterical as “Alice” did hers. (You know who I am talking about and if you don’t, then obviously you have enough ways to waste your time without my help.) You know you would have laughed about my dismantling the microwave vent only to remember that my m-i-l is too short to have seen the grime on it anyway. I’ll just let you imagine me hunching over and staggering around the apartment trying to get her perspective, much like one crawls around the house to baby-proof it.

4. I don’t know why I am putting forth so much effort on a probable lost cause. My in-laws like me, but I don’t think it will be possible for our area to seduce them. We fled the climate and setting that my in-laws equated with tranquil paradise and have moved to a place that makes them think of tarantulas, tornados and triple digit heat. It doesn’t help that we ended up in a city instead of a suburban or rural area. That wasn’t exactly our fault though we should have anticipated it. As soon as our lease is up we hope to somewhat rectify that part of the equation.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-08-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

Monday: I made some gorgeous Pitas in the morning, some of which we had at dinner with Indian Minced Meat and Peas.
Tuesday: The little helper and I made (Undouble) Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies to channel all our nervous energy and get some chocolate into Mommy's traumatized bloodstream. Chicken Salad for dinner.
Wednesday: I really knocked myself out today, making bread and a double recipe of Whole Wheat English Muffins in the morning. In the afternoon I made large and filling plum dumplings for our dinner. They are very odd German yeast dumplings (Germknodel) filled with stewed plums (Powidl) and are steamed/boiled. Very strange, but if you are crazy enough to acquire a taste for them, they are good. You pour melted butter (would you like a triple bypass with that?) over them and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar and poppyseeds.
Thursday: Still going with the insane-kill-myself-before-I-even-get-to-basic-dusting vibe, I made whole wheat tortillas during the helper's nap. 2&1/2 batches because 2 would not be enough and just saying "triple batch" made varicose veins pop out all over my legs. Then we had tacos for dinner. I thought the whole wheat tortillas made with oil were tough and/or brittle. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would have said a 4 or 5 because I am spoiled like that. The obliging husband thought an 8 or 9 was more fair.
Friday: Another loaf of bread today. And then I made a blah little Chicken Pasta Salad for dinner but perked it up a bit with a honey dijon dressing.
Saturday: I made a weird jello salad that you don't want to know about and then we had pizza for dinner.
Sunday: Taco Salad for dinner and watermelon we bought at the Farmer's Market on Saturday.

It is so hot you can . . .

2006-08-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

make yogurt on your balcony!
Stirring frequently, bring 1 quart of milk to a boil over medium heat (on the stovetop). Cool to 100 degrees and whisk in 3 tablespoons yogurt. Divide mixture between 2 pint jars and place jars in a small cooler or basin (rubbermaid tubs would work). Pour 100 degree water around the jars, cover with towels and place outside for 4-5 hours. Remove jars to refrigerator and chill.

No, I don't like the heat, but it sure beats freezin'!

Don't let it happen to you!

2006-08-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

So, this morning we had two potty training accidents. And that is when the meaning of "no chocolate in the house" really sunk in. When I finished cleaning up and pulling all of my hair out, we made Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies (no, you dummy, not as a reward for her!). Except that, without chocolate chips, they weren't really "double," were they? But if there had been chocolate chips in the house we wouldn't have needed to make the cookies in the first place.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-07-31T13:12:00.000-07:00

Monday: For dinner I tried an interesting experiment: Spaghetti, using cooked lentils in place of the beef. It was very good, though I think in future I will go 50/50 beef and lentils. Lentils cook very fast and, being bland, they take on the flavors around them. Lately when I serve meatless meals I worry that our daughter will grow up to be a vegetarian. While I don't think vegetarians are evil, we are meat people and it would be traumatic for me to be confronted with a vegetarian at such close quarters. That said we try to be frugal and healthy so the portions of meat are often small.
Tuesday: Spicy Indian Chicken for dinner with Brown Rice.
Wednesday: Leftover Spaghetti for dinner.
Thursday: I don't remember what we ate - sorry!
Friday: Pasta Salad for dinner.
Saturday: Lunch was our big meal, a California Tamale Pie we took to my grandparents. And then dinner was leftovers.
Sunday: Oktoberfest Pockets for dinner. And I made a loaf of bread too!

The current vibe

2006-07-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

My in-laws are coming for a visit in two weeks and I am feeling jittery. This will be their first time to visit us here and I want them to be overwhelmed with how "right" a place it is for us. And naturally I want them to be reminded of (because they should already know) what a great wife and mother I make for their son and granddaughter. Everything should be fine because, honestly, I have fantastic in-laws. The few quirks that annoy me are so very minor that if I mentioned them it would melt the world-wide-web with envy. They are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and they live very far away. What is so hard about a short visit? Well, that bit about them living so far away is a double edged sword because it makes me feel that I have that much less opportunity to impress them. If your in-laws visit once a month and they only see your floor dirty 3 times a year then they can assume that your house is clean about 70% of the time, right? If they visit once in 2 years and they see your floor dirty once they will conclude your house is never clean. Isn't that the way it works?
I mentioned my nervousness and my husband began making the usual soothing noises. But when I said "I'm going to wash the light fixtures and clean the windows tomorrow," He looked up.

In other news: I've discovered the best thing about living in a little apartment. You can say, "I'm going to wash the windows," And everyone is impressed. Twenty minutes later, you are too.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-07-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Monday: I made just a small batch of tortillas to try using oil instead of solid shortening. They seemed easier to roll out. Will report further comparison later. Balsamic Chicken over Brown Rice for dinner. Not a big hit with husband or helper. Bah!
Tuesday: Made bread. Porcupine Meatballs for dinner.
Wednesday: The little helper and I made carrot cookies. For dinner, Chicken Quesadillas with the oil tortillas made Monday. The tortillas seemed a bit more brittle than those made with solid shortening but I think a better judgment could be made if we had tacos.
Thursday: Meatball sandwiches for dinner.
Friday: For dinner I made fabulous fried chicken breast sandwiches. I mean, they were stinkin' exquisite! Crisp and juicy, not greasy or limp. Sadly, the husband had eaten out a late and large lunch and the urchin was more interested in playing so my scrumptious dinner was not appreciated to the extent it deserved.
Saturday: Our nephew's birthday so the extended family had burgers out.
Sunday: Our traditional pizza for dinner on a non-traditional night and at a thoroughly un-traditional though perhaps not un-godly hour.

In the Background

2006-07-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

On the phone with my sister today I heard this conversation with her son:
"You licked that cupcake!? Well don't think that means you get to eat it now! I'll just mark it for you to eat tomorrow at your party!"
Meanwhile I am telling my own offspring: "No you may not have another cookie, you crumbled the last one all over the table!"

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-07-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

I really need to work on these posts as the week progresses. When I procrastinate we end up like this:
Monday: uh, beats me! Tuesday: we ate . . . food! Wednesday: yeah, something or other. It was the best!
Thursday: Cheesy Chicken and Broccoli Rice Casserole for dinner. I made the best Linzer Cookies in the world using my snazzy linzer cookie cutter. The little helper did not help but she loves the finished product especially when I tell her that she gets the ones with the heart in the middle because mommy loves her so much. I love that she doesn't roll her eyes and think "cheesy mom" at that.
Friday: I baked bread, the usual. Chicken Pasta Salad for dinner.
Saturday: Yummy hamburger pizza for dinner. Now with oregano, the missing spice!
Sunday: Leftover Chicken Pasta Salad for dinner with fresh cantaloupe.

Further evidence that our two year old is a genius

2006-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned before that our daughter corrects her own grammar but at the time I couldn't think of an example. Well, we had a classic today so I rushed in here to share it.
"The heart shape broke. I didn't want it to broke. Break. I didn't want it to break."
I told you people* we have a brilliant mind here!

*you people = my readers = my husband

My take on it

2006-07-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Those French! I’ve had them all wrong it seems. They can get worked up about something. Pity it is over something that matters so little in an eternal sense. This American lacks the European worldview to analyze the “soccer situation” in any way that could seem rational to the “true” soccer fans, but I have to put in my two cents. Or maybe three. I’m sitting here scratching my head over the way France is so readily forgiving Zidane. Yes, I understand he is a star, a good player, a hero and all that lovely stuff. But I’m thinking: “Okay, so they’re saying it is naughty but excusable (if you are their star of the moment choice) to retaliate against somebody because they hurt your feelings? Come on ya pansy, toughen up! But at the same time it is inexcusably wicked, mean and evil to retaliate against somebody for hurting* another human?” I know, I know, we are talking about two vastly different incomparable realms, but come on, folks, this is a game versus real life and death issues.

*torture, rape, extermination, is what I mean of course, not words, for goodness sake!

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-07-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Monday: Grilled Hamburgers and Tatertots for dinner. Braum's Peppermint Icecream for dessert.
Tuesday: My Mom's spinach Manicotti for lunch. I made Kaiser Rolls / Semmel and my granny made a beautiful patriotic layered fruit jello for accompaniments. As if we were not popping full already, we then consumed my mother's delicious fried apple pies and granny's cupcakes with thick yummy frosting. Um, and that was just lunch, folks! Dinner was at the Catfish Roundup with my other grandparents. I am sitting here on Wednesday morning wondering how much ground was lost in the battle against Stress (brought on by a cross-country move, temporary unemployment and thereafter confinement with a toddler) Related Weight Gain.
Wednesday: Pancakes for dinner.
Thursday: The little helper and I made "Chocolate Chunkers" cookies from my birthday cookbook. FABULOUS! Spicy Baked Chicken and Brown Rice for dinner.
Friday: I baked a loaf of Buttermilk Honey Bread and made a bit of the dough into rolls to accompany: Squash Casserole for dinner.
Saturday: Pizza for dinner. We are such creatures of habit! We like to call it tradition, though.
Sunday: Leftover Squash Casserole for dinner with open faced cucumber sandwiches.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-07-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

Monday: The little helper and I made "Chocolate Chip Strips" from the new birthday cookbook. They are quite good for a crisp type chocolate chip cookie. (I prefer soft and chewy but the beloved husband likes them crisp.) Anybody both reading this blog and paying attention (ah, yes, there are none of you, just as I thought) will be pleased to hear that this is yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe I can add to my itsy repertoire of chocolate chip cookies that survive my curse. That could be a whole post of its own! For dinner we had Crusted Chicken (recipe from a back issue of Cuisine at Home), baked potato and green beans. Chicken could be another whole post! In my kitchen, chicken has two alternatives: raw or dry. I have a couple safe recipes but even they can be a struggle if my chicken hasn't been thawing for a fortnight. Most of the dishes we eat I can make out of thin air, bending and twisting memories of recipes and shadows of techniques to create appetizing and often easy meals. But chicken? Chicken! Maybe I don't know chicken all that well. In any case, I am babbling when all I meant to say was that the chicken turned out wonderfully and I have added another "safe" recipe to my chicken repertoire.
Tuesday: Small green salad and our standby Lentils with Rice for dinner.
Wednesday: Chicken and Rice for dinner.
Thursday: I made English Muffins to stash in the freezer. Yum! Meatloaf and a potato disaster for dinner. Friday: Pasta with "Telephone Wires" for dinner. Apparently, melty mozzarella cheese looks like telephone wires to The Frugal Gourmet to whom I am indebted for this garlicky recipe.
Saturday: Breakfast at IHOP for dinner. :)
Sunday: Homemade Canadian Bacon Pizza for dinner - a joint effort between my mother and I.

A new law of nature

2006-06-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

I dress my daughter modestly. She "may only be two years old" but we feel that habits form early and thus it matters what she wears if we want her to develop a proper view of modesty. It never seems to fail, however, that the clothes she wears without issue at home become a problem when my parents are around. "Guess you'll be retiring that outfit, huh!" they chuckle as her midriff suddenly peaks from the outfit I just bought last week. Or they'll joke "She needs suspenders for that!" as my favorite pair of shorts rides down to show off the brand of diaper she's in. My sister laughed when I mentioned this paranoia to her, citing her own (different) fears when they keep her son. "You don't understand," I argued, "I specifically picked the clothes I sent this weekend because of comments they made last time we visited. These were totally safe clothes I sent, and even they failed the test!" So I decided it was just a law of nature; that for us, clothes that fit at home don't fit at the grandparents.
But guess what? It is worse than that. It is not just a law of nature . . . it has become a jinx! Today I put her in the offending blouse from the weekend and it was too short. I give up!

So. What are we taking next time? Overalls!

In the Oven, on the Table and OUT!

2006-06-25T19:06:00.000-07:00

Monday: I baked a loaf of my standby bread. Incidentally, I use a lovely pullman loaf pan so that we have nice square sandwiches and toast. It only needs a recipe using about 5 cups of flour though, and since most of my favorite recipes use 6 cups, I often make a few little dinner rolls that I freeze for later. There you have the secret of "my brown and serve rolls." While my little helper napped I whipped out (ha! laboriously produced!) a double recipe of flour tortillas. Thus we had bean burritos for dinner.
Tuesday: The little helper assisted me in making Peanut Butter Muffins. We had Rosemary Baked Chicken and Oven Roasted Potatoes for dinner with a small green salad.
Wednesday: Tacos for dinner!
Thursday: Chicken Pasta salad for dinner.
Friday: Chicken Fajitas for dinner.
Saturday: Dinner Out! To celebrate our wedding anniversary (late) we tearfully left our precious, small and only daughter with her adored and adoring grandparents. We went to a French bakery and cafe on Friday night for a snack and then on Saturday night we went to a German restaurant.
Vorspeise: Drei Verschiedene Wurst Sorten mit Senf und Brot Korb.
Salate: Gurken Salat Speziell Gewuerzt mit Sauerrahm.
Hauptgerichte: Spiessbraten Haus Spezialitaet (Pork Loin Roast stuffed with onions and spices and slow smoked). Warmer Kartoffel Salat und Spaetzle.
Nachspeisen: Apfel Strudel mit Vanilleeis.
Delicious! Pardon my German.
Sunday: I wish I could tell you that we went to a fabulous Italian restaurant on Sunday night, but no. We ran out of money, the 2 year old bundle of joy, energy and life returned and . . . ho hum. Chicken Salad for dinner. But it is wonderful to be a whole family again. I am writing this before the crabbitude of tomorrow sets in. The "I didn't sleep enough at my grandparents, they played with me all the time why can't you, when will we go back?" blues will set in with her tomorrow.

I loathe Echinacea!

2006-06-23T06:26:00.000-07:00

I am an
Echinacea

What Flower
Are You?

"You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you."

There were a couple of questions that I wavered on and when I went back and picked the other answers that I had considered I turned out a daisy. I much prefer daisies and the idea of being a daisy but in the interest of full disclosure, posting the echinacea seemed more honest.

Here is the description for daisy: "You are just a sweet person. When a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, you are happy to offer yours with a box of tissues as well. Once in awhile, you wish you could be a little more dramatic but then sensibility sets back in and you know that you are perfect the way you are."

I saw this quiz on Jordana's site.

Happy Anniversary

2006-06-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

Our anniversary was on Friday and I had a great post in mind. Here it is Wednesday and I have some crumbled remnants in mind of that grand post. Anybody out there interested? I didn't think so. I was going to write about the quilt we began making after we got engaged and use it as a lovely metaphor for marriage.
Here is a sort of outline:

Doing it "right" takes time.
Doing it "right" looks different for every couple. (Our quilt is machine pieced and is being hand quilted.)
There are different stages that sometimes don't seem at all related. Some are more fun than others but they are all required to make a quilt.
Is it ever "finished?" (We started this quilt over 5 years ago.)
Practice makes "perfect." (This is my first time hand quilting and it took me / is taking me a long time to get the hang of it. It has gotten much easier as I have done more of it, and what I most recently did looks better than my first block or two.)
Sometimes you can't fix your mistakes and you just have to move on.
Even with lots of practice, some days you just can't seem to do anything right. Every thread breaks and your stitches wobble.
As a whole, it will be beautiful, mistakes and all.
It will have value to you. It very well may have value to others as well. (The example of faithfulness you set in your community. The security and comfort your commitment provides for your children.)
Don't give up! There have been months that the quilt was put away (there was no room to work on it) but I always come back to it. I refuse to be discouraged that it isn't "finished already!"
Don't give yourself an out. I have not bought a bedspread for our bed because we already have one. This is what we chose back when we were registering for gifts. We could not find anything we liked better or could agree on until we decided on this project and picked out the pattern and fabrics together.
Stay committed. I will not take on any medium to large craft projects until it is finished.
Do what you know is right. Listen to the opinions that matter. People may laugh, "She still hasn't finished that quilt?!" My husband and I know that this quilt will get finished and we are willing to wait for it. We don't make our choices based on what some else thinks.

Very rough, yes, but inspiring. Isn't it? Isn't it??

The Pros and Cons

2006-06-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a blog, it seems. Many friends started them over a year ago. My husband started one last fall. I held off. I love reading blogs. I love to write, I think I even like writing this blog. But I like my privacy too, so that is why this blog is anonymous. But blogging hasn't gone as I expected and I think it is because I am anonymous. I don't have any readers because I don't tell anybody that I am here. There are parts of the anonymity I like. My mom doesn't read my weekly menu and fret that her granddaughter isn't getting proper nutrition (though don't you think it looks pretty balanced?). Nobody writes to criticize my use of time. My friends can't laugh about what I'm reading, watching or doing. (And maybe that says something sad about me: that I don't trust my friends enough to be completely honest.) I don't get hatemail for my bad grammar, discipline techniques, or sloppy blogging. This is safe! But how do you write to a faceless audience or no audience at all? How do you find any direction or motivation? And honestly? Even though "nobody knows about it" I edit myself here anyway. So I guess it wouldn't be bad to let a few people in on this oh so fabulous blog of mine. And if I don't have the guts to keep it real, I can always just stop, huh?

Not that I mind,

2006-06-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

I just hadn't really expected to ever find myself making doll panties . . .

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Monday: Baked some bread dough left in the fridge from Sunday's cinnamon rolls. Fabulous Homemade Spaghetti for dinner with fresh green beans and my own "brown and serve" rolls. Note: I do not have a spaghetti recipe and it turns out differently every time. This frustrates me because, although it is rarely bad, I wish it could always be fabulous.
Tuesday: Baked a loaf of Crusty Peasant Bread to go with green salad for dinner. The new bread knife laughingly asked "Is this the toughest job you have for me?"
Wednesday: Dinner was leftover Spaghetti and green beans. Meager scraps of leftover peasant bread (it was so good hot), toasted and anointed with oil and vinegar.
Thursday: I baked some cookies from my new cookbook. Our frequent favorite for dinner: Lentils Flavored with Cumin over Rice.
Friday: Marinated, grilled round steak for dinner with Herbed Garlic Pasta and Peas. Then for dessert . . . ta-dah! Sacher Torte Cookies I made yesterday! After all, it is our real wedding anniversary even if we are celebrating next weekend.
Saturday: Cherub Tomato and Basil Pizza for dinner.
Sunday: Um, yes, it was Father's Day. And no, I didn't forget, I just didn't plan my menu well so we had . . . beans . . . for dinner.
Yes, that is me in the corner wearing the dunce cap.

Thinking

2006-06-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired I should just take a nap. I want to take a nap. But if I do, then I have to let my little helper help make cookies when she wakes up. And I'm too tired to patiently let her help.

Heavy Blunt Instruments, Sharp Pointy Objects and Fatty Food

2006-06-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

Nobody asked, since nobody reads this blog, but I did have a wonderful birthday. It was the first birthday in 5 years that I celebrated with my parents. My wonderful husband and delightful daughter were present, which, if I were listing by favorites, I would have mentioned first. However, I am highlighting the fact that I am finally back in the vicinity of my extended family, so my parents come first on the list of guests. Both sets of my grandparents also came to our apartment for the cake and ice cream. I can't begin to say how special that was. We are all still part of a relatively young family but I remember with every passing family holiday and milestone of the last 5 years that I was away, thinking, "What if I don't see them again? What if they aren't around by the time I can finally be there for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or birthdays?"

But there I go getting morbid without the lightheartedness I had originally planned. For my birthday I acquired an enormous granite mortar and pestle, an extremely sharp bread knife and a cookbook titled Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book. Doesn't this all sound rather dangerous to you? I have so many new choices for self-defense! For the lingering guest: Noah's Chocolate Chocolatey Chocolate Chips or Fudgie Wudgies? Cappuccino Shortbread Sails or Chocolate Souffle Brownies? Stumble into my apartment uninvited and I'll clobber you with my 2 ton mortar. Insult my cooking or my daughter and I could saw a toe off! Isn't this exciting?

I am concerned about something though. My husband (he with bad heart genes) is the one who presented me with both knife and cookbook. And this, after his blood-work the week before came back less than thrilling. Just what is he up to?

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

2006-06-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

After 2+ years of singing songs with our little daughter and months of doing the (sometimes ridiculous) hand motions to various ones she is finally showing an interest in doing the motions too. I am thrilled! There is nothing cuter than a small and serious little person breaking into song and seeing her eyes shine as she acts out her favorites with a mile-wide grin of pride. "Wake Up, Warm Up," is her current favorite, learned at the library. Our library's story time for her age is a lot of songs and most of them have motions that I help her through as she is learning them. Now, as we listen to music at home, she watches me expectantly at the beginning of each one, hoping that I will start flapping my arms around or stamping my feet erratically. I confess to feeling foolish while acting out many of them, but it is worth it to see her trying to join in. I love story time because there are so many songs I have forgotten or never knew. I have a terrible time trying to dredge up childhood songs so I am grateful to the librarian and eager to find a church with a good Sunday School program to remind me of other great songs we can sing together. (Not that action songs are my sole reason for going to church . . .)

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-06-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

If I can actually remember . . .
Monday: Lasagna with salad and hot rolls for dinner.
Tuesday: Chicken Pasta Salad for dinner.
Wednesday: Leftover lasagna for dinner.
Thursday: Chicken, Carrots, Peas and Potatoes flavoured with Cumin for dinner.
Friday: Madhur Jaffrey's "Chicken in a Red Sweet Pepper Sauce" and her "'Dry' Potatoes with Ginger and Garlic" for dinner. Quite a spicy dinner!
Saturday: Homemade cheese pizza for dinner. And the crust didn't rise . . .
Sunday: Made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Leftover pizza for dinner.

If you can help it

2006-06-02T13:34:00.000-07:00

Don't mow the grass between 1:30 and 5:00 pm. My daughter might be sleeping.
Don't start your motorcycle under my daughter's window at 5:00 am. Do you want to die?
Don't wait till the blazing middle of the afternoon to do all the lawn maintenance around the apartment. Are you asking for sun stroke or homicidal mother strike?
Don't work on your motorcycle under my daughter's window all blessed afternoon.
Don't rev your motorcycle up and down the sidewalk outside our apartment at 2:00 pm.
In fact, why don't you drive your motorcycle into the lake?

Don't move a 20 month old from a remote and rural home on a quiet, dead-end road to a metropolitan apartment on a 4 lane. Bad idea.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-06-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Monday: My mom made beef fajitas and hamburgers for the holiday meal. I made a fun "sweet fluff" type salad with orzo, box pudding, cool whip, crushed pineapple, etc. There were baked beans and potato salad and tons of fixin's - nat'ch. My mom had a simple but delicious butter cake with rum hard sauce which sounds both more wicked and less tasty than the reality.
Tuesday (which was not a Monday): The little helper and I made some chunky chocolate chip cookies. I am chocolate chip cookie baking impaired. I can only make two kinds that do not go all flat and greasy. One is chock full of ground oatmeal and ground pecans plus a ton of butter and chocolate chips. They seem healthier than they are and are sooo tasty. The other kind is a pile of chocolate chips held together by very, very little rich buttery dough. Anyway, so much for my life history of chocolate chip cookie baking. Roast, potatoes, carrots and orzo fluff for dinner.
Wednesday: Bbq beef sandwiches, green salad and cookies for dinner.
Thursday: Tuesday's leftovers for dinner.
Friday: Made Pita bread. Ham and Pea quiche for dinner.
Saturday: One of my favorite meals for dinner. "Greek Sandwiches." Lovely strips of sirloin tip all marinaded, fried and tucked into pita with veggies and sour cream. Cucumbers are my favorite vegetable. Unless I'm eating one of my other favorite vegetables at the time. Melt in your mouth Devil's Food Cake made by my mother with Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. Happy Early Birthday, me!

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-05-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

Monday: Made whole wheat tortillas with my little helper. Chicken and Beef Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce for dinner with green beans.
Tuesday: Made Beth Hensperger's "Bagel Bread." It doesn't really taste or feel bagel-like to me but it is still yummy. Leftover Enchiladas with corn.
Wednesday: Chicken and Summer Squash Pasta Salad.
Thursday: Made Welsh Scones with my little helper. Leftovers for dinner because . . .
Tomorrow we are off for a round of family visiting and fabulous family food!

Paying for my raising

2006-05-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

I asked my daughter this morning while brushing her teeth, "Were you designed entirely to make my life harder?"
"Yeah," she said, biting the toothbrush again.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-05-22T07:20:00.000-07:00

Monday: TexMex Rice and Sautéed Zucchini and Celery for dinner.
Tuesday: Chicken and Rice with broccoli for dinner. The little helper and I made "Vanilla and Chocolate Rocks," commonly known as chocolate chip cookies.
Wednesday: Pizza Beans for dinner.
Thursday: Made 2 loaves of "Buttermilk Honey Bread." Madhur Jaffrey's "Carrots, Peas and Potatoes flavoured with Cumin" and TexMex Rice for dinner.
Friday: Home made pizza for dinner.
Saturday: Made Beth Hensperger's "Blueberry and Lemon Bread with Lemon Glaze." Semmel knodel for dinner.
Sunday: Kaiserschmarren for dinner.

Measure once, cut twice

2006-05-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Toddlers are messy creatures. I always thought of them as the stickiest, grubbiest, little unkempt people on the planet. Even those among them most desirous of being clean seem always to be spilling or smearing everything on themselves and everyone in reach. I am a neat freak and have always dreaded toddlers. My own is no exception to the rule. She is messy and clumsy (though not to the extent I was at her age); a disaster waiting to happen. That said, if grape jam and snot must be smeared on my only clean blouse, there is no small person I would rather be responsible for it than her.
We are potty training and it is part of an exciting developmental stage. She wants to be independent (to a degree) and this is part of her learning to actually be so. This is the beginning of her taking ownership of her body. It is a stretching experience for me; giving up some of my control and dealing with a wider swath of destruction. No longer do we have a foul bundle bound for the garbage plus, worst case scenario, a simple pair of soiled shorts. Now it is a trail to the potty chair to mop up and a dozen soggy training pants. It is praise for making it to the toilet even though half of the effort fountained out onto the carpet. These messes on top of the food that hits the floor and the obligatory two spilled drinks per day have me clenching my teeth and trying so very hard not to raise my voice as I say, "Keep your toes out of the puddle and sit still on the potty chair!"
I don't believe I was cut out to be a mother. God and my daughter are cutting me out to be a mother. Sometimes it feels like there will be nothing left of me when the cutting is finished. Nothing left of me.

Is she trying to tell me something?

2006-05-16T06:36:00.000-07:00

Is there a subtle meaning behind the way our daughter divides up her toy food? She always gets the strawberry icecream, Papa gets the chocolate and Mommy is left with the vanilla. But then Mommy gets two animal crackers to Papa's one. I guess she does see me eat more often than she sees him eat. And is there significance to the fact that I always get the lion and elephant while he gets the bear? I can hear my husband rolling his eyes and starting in: "Paranoia, paranoia, everybody's coming to get me . . ."

That's My Daughter!

2006-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

She has started correcting her own grammar. Not just basic word choice but verb tenses. I am so proud! An English degree is never wasted.

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-05-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Monday: Madhur Jaffrey's "Spicy Baked Chicken," Oven Roasted Potatoes and Fresh Green Beans for dinner.
Tuesday: Baked Potatoes with all the toppings for dinner.
Wednesday: Baked a loaf of bread and some garlic rolls. Spaghetti, Garlic Rolls and Fresh Summer Squash for dinner.
Thursday: Texmex Rice and Broccoli for dinner.
Friday: Baked Mary Gubser's "Blueberry Sally Lunn." Calzoni for dinner.
The weekend was spent at my parent's house where I positively stuffed myself. I think of myself as a good cook, but whenever I eat my mother's hot rolls or pie crust I wonder why I even bother. She is unsurpassed! Happy Mother's Day, Mums!

Excerpts

2006-05-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning: An Approach to Distinctively Christian Education by Douglas Wilson (Wheaton, IL Crossway Books, 1991.). This is an excellent book about the purposes of education and the responsibility Christian parents have as they make decisions regarding the education of their children. I am often frustrated and embarassed by the impetuous and ignorant claims that "Christians" make regarding education (and a host of other issues). Douglas Wilson brings a good dose of logic to the argument instead of the usual song and dance: "I pay taxes so they better do as I say!"

Below is the first of what I hope will be more samples I give as I read this excellent book.

"It is curious that Christians are pushing so strenuously for prayer which they don't believe to be prayer. Christians pray to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ - not to Allah, Krishna, or God-as-you-conceive-him/her-to-be. If we were successful in establishing Christian prayer in the schools, we would be violating the religious liberties of those who are not Christians. If we establish prayer that is not Christian, what have we gained?"

"If Christians object to secular humanism as an established non-Christian worldview in the schools, then it makes no sense to fight to establish another non-Christian worldview-worship of the God of the Lowest Common Denominator."

"Because our society is so diverse, there is no way to establish school prayer unless there is compromise on the content of the prayer. In our society, individuals from a multitude of different religions, denominations, and worldviews are enrolled in the public schools. This means that any prayer acceptable to the majority of all these groups would have all the doctrinal rigor of oatmeal. Students would learn to pray to a mush god; the god of the civil religion."
Pages 40-41

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-05-08T07:43:00.000-07:00

Monday: Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Broccoli for dinner.
Tuesday: Baked 2 loaves of "Buttermilk Honey Bread." (and dropped a bread pan) Leftover Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes and Broccoli for dinner with Hot Rolls and Fresh Green Beans.
Wednesday: Balsamic Beef Pasta Salad for dinner.
Thursday: Made a Crazy Chocolate Cake with my little helper and frosted it with a buttercream. Oktoberfest Pockets for dinner. And cake, naturally.
Friday: Leftover Balsamic Beef Pasta Salad for dinner with cantaloupe. Cake!
Saturday: Dinner at my sister's.
Sunday: Crustless Quiche for dinner.

I didn't think we ate leftovers so often until I started this blog. I am slightly embarassed.

The clumsy cook

2006-05-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

I made some lovely bread today and burned my toes. How? Step 1: Remove the loaves from the oven and place on top of the stove. Step 2: Turn around in the tiny galley kitchen. Step 3: Remove the (hot from the oven) loaves from the pans onto the cooling racks. Step 4: Turn around. Step 5: Let a pan slip from the pot-holder grasp to shatter on and around your feet and the tile floor. Bonus Step 6: Instantly step on a flaming piece of glass and yell, "Ow, ow, ow, ow!" while looking at a chunk of glass burning a hole into the top of the left foot.
Okay, maybe not a hole, but an amazing and painful blister. Apparently, a quarter to half inch wide slice at the base of the big toe is not sufficiently painful.
And?
All that "time saved" by cleaning the bathroom before my little helper woke up this morning was more than canceled out by the time spent sweeping, sweeping and vacuuming our suddenly huge galley kitchen. Not to mention the time spent for the foot's ice bath and wrestling the oven drawer out and in for thorough sweeping purposes.
When will I learn to wear shoes in the kitchen?

The absent minded cook

2006-05-01T06:12:00.000-07:00

I neglected to mention that Sunday morning I made Marcy Goldman’s “Famous Vanilla Scones.” Scones can be a semi-quick breakfast. I combine and refrigerate my dry ingredients the night before and cut in the butter. The next morning I am able to quickly stir in my liquids, form and bake. Oh, the brilliance of my culinary tip is far too dazzling for a Monday morning!

In the Oven and on the Table

2006-04-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

Monday: Baked 2 loaves of Beth Hensperger's "Buttermilk Honey Bread." Leftovers from the weekend for dinner.
Tuesday: Made "Chocolate Meringue Sandwiches." Madhur Jaffrey's "Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seeds" for dinner with plain jasmine rice. (http://www.recipelink.com/ch/2002/october/asweetquartet3.html)
Wednesday: Madhur Jaffrey's "Spicy Baked Chicken" with her "Sweet Yellow Rice" for dinner.
Thursday: "Schwabische Maultashen" for dinner. I think of it as the German cousin to ravioli.
Friday: Baked another loaf of "Buttermilk Honey Bread" and used the rest of the dough with the leftover Maultaschen filling to make ?? Stuffed Hot Rolls? I'm sure there is a name for oddities like this. Leftover lentils and sweet rice for dinner.
Saturday: Homemade hamburger pizza for dinner.
Sunday: Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers!

I would love to research the development/migration of various filled pastas and breads throughout different cultures to trace the similarities, differences and possible relationships from one ethnic cuisine to another. Actually, I think food history in general would be a fun study but discovering and making Maultashen is what has sparked my interest in the first place.

A Toddler's Flattery

2006-04-28T12:19:00.001-07:00

Our daughter usually follows "I'm TWO!" with "Mommy is three." I choose to take this as a compliment. Mostly, though, I am amused by the fact that with her little elephant's memory she doesn't remember how old I really am. You see, when I first taught her how old she was she asked for my age as well. I stupidly told her! The truth, naturally. I wonder if she is just toying with me and will one day blurt my true age to a stranger.

Question: Is flattery from a toddler ever conciously delivered?

A sense of direction

2006-04-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

I love food from all angles. I think I will try a weekly post about what I've been doing in the kitchen. This is not going to be strictly a food blog (and certainly nothing approaching a food journal - horrors!) but my talking about food is inevitable. You have been warned.

2006-04-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, and I'm sure you have a question too. If this blog is "All shades of Purple," why is it pink? I refer you to the first post of this blog.

2006-04-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if or where this blog will go, but right now I have two random questions:
1. When our toddler helps me with the laundry, why does she take the used Bounce sheet and say "Celebrate!"?
2. What am I going to do when she gets old enough to realize I eat her chocolate?

All shades of Purple

If I don't come back

Parenting Observations

Enigmatic

Friday Photo

Friday Photo

If this post has a point, I promise it isn't "let go and have fun"

Quiz of the stressed desserts

Invasion

Not there yet

Purple Programming

When I'm not smelling like cheap car fresheners

Tags

If I had a day that I could give you

Another reason to avoid Purple

Monday Fine Motor Skills

Friday Photos

An indicator of what to expect this week?

Monday Food Matters

"Maybe I can wait a little longer" OR "Just when I thought one wasn't enough"

The Leopard Hat reviewed by Rusty Reiter

Monday Food Matters

Sigh

Sources

Monday Food Matters

Parenting Survival Tips Bonus

Friday Photo

What do you do when m&m's don't make it all better

Story Time

Monday Food Matters

The Last Cowboy Picture

One shelf up

A new link!

Monday Food Matters

Friday Photo

Bookshelf

Friday Photo

Stating the obvious

Ask Purple

In the Oven and on the Table

Shoes

Guest Blogger

In the Oven and on the Table

Just how big is that backyard?

In the Oven and on the Table

mini-posts

In the Oven and on the Table

It is so hot you can . . .

Don't let it happen to you!

In the Oven and on the Table

The current vibe

In the Oven and on the Table

In the Background

In the Oven and on the Table

Further evidence that our two year old is a genius

My take on it

In the Oven and on the Table

In the Oven and on the Table

A new law of nature

In the Oven, on the Table and OUT!

I loathe Echinacea!

Happy Anniversary

The Pros and Cons

Not that I mind,

In the Oven and on the Table

Thinking

Heavy Blunt Instruments, Sharp Pointy Objects and Fatty Food

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

In the Oven and on the Table

If you can help it

In the Oven and on the Table

In the Oven and on the Table

Paying for my raising

In the Oven and on the Table

Measure once, cut twice

Is she trying to tell me something?

That's My Daughter!

In the Oven and on the Table

Excerpts

In the Oven and on the Table