A (Figurative) Calm Before the (Literal?) Storm

So now we wait. Like I told you, the freezer is pretty stocked with healthy meals, I'm slowly but surely washing and putting away all of the goodies from my "sprinkle" this past weekend, the hospital bag is packed for me and Hubs and Cuatro, Halloween candy is purchased for the like 3 trick-or-treaters we get a year, bills are paid in advance for the beginning of the month, and all is well in the universe. I'm as prepared as I'm getting, I think. As much as I'm enjoying this time with just Stenni, Hubs and I (and I'm using the term loosely; I'm enjoying it as much as a giant, uncomfortable 9-month pregnant woman can enjoy anything), I'm also dreading the time when it all hits the fan. Which, truth be told, could be any day now.
And while I'm kind of talking about labor and delivery and the aftermath, here's the thing that's really in the back of my mind: 2 years ago, we in Northwest NJ (and elsewhere across the Northeast) enjoyed a little something known as "Snowmageddon," which was basically a mammoth, freak snowstorm that took down huge tree limbs (because they were really heavy, you know, as there were still leaves on them, since it was fall and all that, so with the ice...they didn't stand a chance), iced up roadways for public works departments who were basically not at all prepared (they usually get their snow work departments together around November 1st), and altogether ruined Halloween for everyone. Last year? We had another lovely surprise known as Hurricane Sandy, and wasn't she just a peach. We couldn't get out of town because of all the tree limbs down, we lost power for about 2 weeks, there were gas lines that stretched for miles, the supermarkets in the area all shut down because the food went bad for lack of refrigeration (how do these places not have generators???), and all in all it was super-fun. Since we couldn't get out of town because most of the roads in the area were closed, damaged, flooded, had bridges out, etc., we couldn't get up to NY state to get our camping supplies, which were in the cabin up there (on the plus side, in a real-life emergency bug-out scenario, we now know that we wouldn't be able to get to the cabin if we tried, but it's still an ok option because it's in the middle of nowhere). So we had some candles, some charcoal, a bunch of blankets, and thankfully the woodstove to keep us warm and toasty. Honestly, if we had city water instead of well water (again, without a back-up...we should know better), it would have been pretty nice for me.I liked the complete lack of background noise, but I would also have liked to take a shower (not in a public park) and flush the toilet and wash the dishes and all that.
But I keep thinking that I'm glad that that was last year, because if I was having a kid this year we wouldn't have even made it out of town to get to the hospital. I would have had a baby at home on the floor without clean water. And that would have been that. I know that people did it that way for centuries, but I would have been totally unprepared for a thing like that. A friend's neighbor went into labor during the blackout, but was able to get to the hospital because of where she lived (out further towards the edge of town, closer to the highways). We probably wouldn't be able to do that. Hubs tells me not to worry about it, but I have to admit that it is there, in the back of my mind.
Now, as of this moment, there are no real storms predicted for the next week or so. But even the past few years when there were, people didn't really take them seriously. I wonder if everyone is bracing themselves for the inevitable this year, or it's just business as usual.
I'm just hoping my kid gets her first real Halloween and can go trick-or-treating. She's 3. Think I'm kidding? Then take a look at this. Yeah, she was exactly 2 months old on her first Halloween, so while I got to enjoy all of her candy because babies can't have butterfingers, everyone know that, it was a hollow victory considering that Halloween would be cancelled the next few years. All I can do is hold out hope for this year, and pray that I don't go into labor before then!

Make yourself useful and...prep yourself before you wreck yourself

I know that it's been quite a while since I've done a "Make Yourself Useful" feature. Frankly, in my current condition, it's been a while since I've done too much that could be considered even remotely useful. So I figured I'd make this one count, and also make you really hate me if you don't already. You ready? Good, cuz it's time to gird up your loins and prepare for Christmas! 

You know, Christmas is only like, 92 days away, right? RIGHT? That's like, 3 months, and if you like to do holidays in a big way, you need to get yourself in gear.
 (You really hate me now, don't you?)

What that means is that some serious planning is in order. With a new baby on the way sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving (in all probability), I'll lose about a month and a half of planning, shopping, wrapping, and prepping in general. That means that I need to be on the ball, or at least somewhere near the ball. Here are some ways that you can get ready too:

1. Start planning who to buy gifts for, and what to buy for whom. Make a list of everyone you bought for last year and amend it as needed. Any new additions to the family, like babies, boyfriends/girlfriends, new spouses, anything like that? Anyone eliminated (ouch)? Try to be sure that everyone is accounted for before you start assigning girfts, otherwise you're liable to forget about them altogether.
2. Start saving money for presents and activities. What's that you say? You've been saving all along? Well that's good for you, honey, but we humans spend our money on things like groceries and Netflix and pumpkin scented candles and can't be bogged down by things like setting aside a few bucks a week. Here's how this works in my house: each of us has a piggy bank that we contribute to and then dump twice yearly, once before our summer vacation, and once before Christmas shopping. Then we supplement with what we can use out of our budget (generally one chunk of cash comes out of the bank for Black Friday and another for the other day I Christmas shop...yes I only shop 2 days, more on that later). There are a number of other ways to do this. If your bank offers the option, sign up for a Christmas Club or separate savings account just for the holidays. It likely won't do you much good this year, but next year when this time rolls around, you'll be good and ready with a nice chunk of change. Also you could try the envelope budgeting system for the next few weeks, putting $20 (or $5 or $50 or whatever you can) in an envelope each week and saving it for when you've finished planning and started shopping. Do whatever works, but don't rely on credit cards to get you through the holiday season. You'll only be sorry come January.  
3. Decide if you want to make anything. The Modern Mrs. Darcy had a great post last year on what to buy vs. what to make. There's a flowchart, and I'm a sucker for charts. Basically it boils down to: make it if it's easy enough and you have the skills to do it, or if it will make it more special. If you don't have the skills or time and/or you won't enjoy the process, go the consumer route. One side of my family makes things for all of the other adults (there are like, a bagillion of us) for the sake of cost-effectiveness. I like this strategy, because everyone gets the same thing, and you don't have to go elaborate or spend a ton. I've made truffles, flavored butters, family cookbooks, dulce de leche, and all kinds of other food-related goodies over the years (everyone loves consumables). Take into consideration that somethings can be made way ahead of time, while others (like baked goods) need to be completed last-minute. PLAN FOR THIS! You don't want to run out of time on Christmas Eve.
4. Make a plan for when you want to buy things. Electronics are generally better buys on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and some stores will start leaking their ads for these "holidays" in the beginning of October. And as I mentioned above in #3, I only shop on two days, taking in a full day during the big Black Friday sales, and another full day at a huge mall some distance from my house. This includes all wrapping paper, supplies, gifts, etc. If I really need something I can't get on either of those days, I order online. So in general once my list is made, I can plan out all of the stops on one of my two days. The rest of the season is family time.  
5. Shop. Do some research and shopping online if you can. Right now is a good time for stocking stuffers since a lot of back-to-school necessities are clearanced out and you can get them for pennies on the dollar. But don't limit yourself to one type of item. My favorite stocking stuffers? Travel-sized toiletries (then I never need to buy them for a trip), small candles and food items, and lottery tickets. My husband never expects anything in his stocking but chocolate. You'll know what works best for your family. Stockings can be done for under $10 if you plan well! One more shopping-related tip: Wrap and label presents as you buy them, so there's no mad dash to do this all a few days before Christmas. Keep the presents in piles or large bags by family, and then organize by when you'll see them. This makes it super-easy to grab a bag of wrapped presents if you know you'll be seeing someone at a party, and you won't have to worry about it last minute
6. Plan your yuletide activities too. If you go carolling or sledding, when? Make sure it's on everyone's calendar now. The holidays get pretty crazy, and you'll need to know what days are available in advance. Within the next few days, I'll be opening my cookie exchange facebook group to search for a day that works for all of our crazy schedules, just so that with all of the commotion, our yearly tradition doesn't get lost in the shuffle. (*An aside: organizing group activities on facebook is so much easier than playing phone tag, and almost everyone has facebook. Give it a try this year. It has simplified my party planning like woah. Still send out invitations and whatnot, but use this to get a feel for invite lists and dates and whatnot.) Remember not to over-schedule; you want to have time to relax as a family and just enjoy the season too. 

When you've had enough, sit back, drink some hot cocoa and reflect on how awesome you are and how you've helped your family have the best Christmas ever.

If you get a chance, head over to Pinterest and check out my board, Jingle Belling, for easy DIY gifts, decoration ideas, holiday food inspiration, and lists to help you organize. Don't say I never gave you anything!

Learning to Tie a Bowtie: The Single Worst Way to Spend the 4th of July

I hope you all had a wonderful, lovely, firework-filled, not too hot July 4th. Here, it was HOTTT and hubs and I had to finish rounding up all of the accoutrements and trappings he needed for a friend's wedding (which happens to be tonight). While on the upside we got to spend some time in the air-conditioned mall, it was looking at men's accessories, so not too much fun. We ended up buying hubby a non-pre-tied bowtie, because with his electric blue linen suit (seriously), he decided that he also needed a snazzy bowtie (also not kidding). 
Ladies, let me just emphasize here that learning to tie a bow tie was the single most painful thing I've ever had to do, and that the level of discomfort tops that caused by shoe shopping, bathing suit shopping, childbirth, or a brazilian wax. While I would say skip the regualr bow tie and go for the pre-tied, everyone knows that they are pretty much for those under the age of 10 and don't look nearly as cool as the real thing. Plus knowing how to tie many different kinds of ties is a life skill, and you (and the men in your life) should totally know how to do it.
That said, no one in my immediate family or (local) circle of friends knew how to tie this thing, so we turned to the answer machine interwebs. After several incredibly frustrating attempts to figure the whole process out through picture tutorials and youtube videos with hands in the way, we finally found a single good video and after several views and about a half an hour of practice, we got it (now hubs can do it better than I can, so I don't have to...whew!).
Here's the video. You're welcome.

We did do other stuff for the 4th of July too. We had a picnic and played some baseball at the Legion field near our house. We went swimming at my folks'. And of course, we watched the Twilight Zone marathon, at least for a while. Here's to hoping your holiday was just as much fun (and productive too)!

On not missing the boat this year: Earth Day 2013

Let me just start out by saying, happy Earth Day! And let me follow that up by saying that for me, last year's Earth Day was an unqualified disaster. I pretty much forgot that it existed and so made no plans beforehand. I was determined not to let that happen this year.
This year, I wanted to make sure that Stenni got a chance to celebrate and get to know what Earth Day was all about. Also, our family started working on at-home preschool about two weeks ago, and I felt like Earth Day would be a great opportunity to learn about all kinds of things that we use and do all the time. So we did lots of super fun things. We talked about recycling, littering, what goes in the trash and what goes in the compost bin and what recyclables go where (she even lectured her papa about recycling when he got home!!!). We talked about re-using "garbage" around the house (like the egg cartons we use to start seeds, and the paper scraps we keep for crafts). We did some cool Earth Day-related worksheets, including some tracing of letters (F for Flower, E for Earth, etc.) to work on preliteracy and fine motor skills. Then we planted a fairy garden, which was really awesome and a lot of fun for both of us (and the other total plus was that we got to hang out outside for a little while). Actually, I planned the garden as an Earth Day surprise for Stenni since before Easter, and bought her a giant pinwheel, a pretty hyacinth, gardening gloves, and a tiny gnome for her Eater basket. We even talked about starting seeds and dragged them all out to look at, but since the temperature continues to fall below freezing here at night on the reg, we didn't plant anything because we don't want to lose it! All in all, it was a pretty good day, and I'm glad that we got a few lessons in.
I hope that you all enjoyed your Earth Day. Did you do anything special to teach your children about stewardship of the planet, or is this just my hippie nonsense side coming out?

What to do with all your leftover matzo

Matzo gets a bad rap as being bland and not really good for anything, except suffering through during Passover. I totally disagree. It's an awesome vehicle for spreads and dips of all kinds (I can't even tell you how many nights I come out to the kitchen in the wee small hours to find hubs chonking on some matzo covered in peanut butter, but the answer is most. And the kitchen floor is covered in crumbs almost every morning). It's also a good replacement for those too-salty and too-buttery crackers that work great with some things and not so great with others, where regular crackers might overwhelm the flavor of an accompaniment.

Anyway, I had these wonderful caramel-and-chocolate-covered matzos at a breakfast I attended this past Easter, and I knew I had to make them! Especially since I have like 5 lbs. of matzoh sitting on Stenni's big girl bed with all of the miscellaneous Easter candy, planing supplies, empty hanging baskets, etc.  

I found this recipe at Zoe Bakes. It's pretty much perfect and was easy enough for me to make last minute for a Relay for Life meeting I had like an hour and a half later. The picture below is less than half of what the recipe makes... the ladies at my meeting ate it right up, quite literally, and none of them could believe it was made from the same matzo that they had passed up at the supermarket after-Passover clearance sales the week earlier. So this picture represents what was leftover for our household...and I can say that there's not nearly as much left this morning!

The recipe itself? Crazy easy. Adapted for my non-kosher, extra-chocolate-loving kitchen.

4-6 plain matzos (or whatever fits on 1 really big or two regular-sized baking sheets)
1 cup butter (I like salted, but the original calls for unsalted. so sue me.)
1 cup brown sugar
1-ish cup of chocolate chips (again, the real recipe calls for half that, but who are we kidding? also, you can use broken chocolate bunnies. no one will care)
extras: including but not limited to mini marshmallows, reese's pieces, broken pieces of salted pretzels, crushed malted milk balls and/or robin's eggs, etc.

• Cover a baking sheet (or the two) entirely with foil and then parchment (things will get very sticky). Preheat oven to 350. 
• Cook butter and sugar over medium-high heat for a few minutes (like 3-6 minutes). It will get bubbly. That is awesome. Just keep stirring it the whole time. You totally don't want it to burn. When it's done it should all be one delicious caramelly thick liquid, with all of the sugar dissolved and all of the butter melted and incorporated.
• Pour the caramel over the matzos and spread it around to coat it evenly. You want to try to cover every little bit so everything has crunchy caramel goodness when you bite it!
• Bake for 8 minutes in preheated oven. Then rotate the pans, switch to different racks, and bake another 5-7 minutes. You want gorgeously brown bubbling caramel when they're done.
• Remove the pans from the oven (you can turn the oven off now) and top the matzos with the plain chocolate. Give it like 5 minutes just sitting on your counter, absorbing the heat, and then spread the melted chocolate around so it's nice and smooth and covers every last bit of the matzo and caramel. 
• Give the chocolate a few moments to set, then toss on those extras. The original recipe calls for things like toasted nuts and sesame seeds and coconut, and those things are really nice, but I had a ton of extra candy lying around so that's what I used. Also I love candy. Deal with it. If nothing's turning solid, pop it in the fridge for a while just to set up.
• Break into bite-sized (or face-sized) pieces. Eat. 

The End.

Linking up this morning at 

(So go visit!)

Happy Weekend, all!!!

Brownies with a secret ingredient...no, not that one

(This isn't the secret ingredient either, though it sure did make the brownies extra yummy)

 

So I made some awesome stout brownies for St. Patrick's Day. And they could well have been vegan too, had I not thrown all of those extra chocolate chips in there for good measure (but what normal human being wouldn't?). So what replaced the normal eggs and oil and gave them their yummy fudgy texture? Pureed black beans. Yes, seriously. I'd seen so many of those internet overachievers make black bean brownies but like the rest of the world, I was skeptical. I love black beans, but really? In a brownie? Some things just don't make sense. Then while looking for a stout brownie recipe to celebrate the big holiday, I ran across this one, and they looked so good and had such rave reviews from across the interwebs that I just had to make them. And I totally don't regret it. They were awesome.
But before you nay-sayers ask what happened to make me lose my marbles, let me just tell you this: My father, who harbors a not-so-secret hatred of all foods healthy, ate one and loved it. And then when I told him what was in them, he ate another one and washed it down with a huge glass of milk. Proof positive that you'll love them. Adapted from a lovely recipe at farmgirlgourmet.com

 

 
Here's What you need:

 

• 1 15 oz can low sodium black beans (not kidding about the low sodium part, it makes a difference), rinsed about 100 times and filled with new fresh water 
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups white sugar 
• 1 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder (or whatever cocoa powder you've got on hand)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup of stout beer, I used Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate stout but a nice coffee stout would be lovely as well (drink the rest...it'll make the morning go by faster)
• 1 semi-sweet chocolate chips (makes it un-vegan but oh well)

And here's what you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Drain a can of black beans and rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear.  Then rinse the inside of the can as well. Return the black beans back to the can and fill with water.  Puree the beans and water using food spocesser.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder with a wire whisk.  Mix the wet ingredients (bean puree, vanilla, and stout), add to the dry ingredients and stir 5-10 times gently until there is no dry flour showing...DO NOT OVERMIX!
4. Pour batter into a well-greased baking pan. *Note...the original recipe calls for a 9x13 pan, but I used a smaller one so that they were taller and fudgier. This is your choice!* Bake for 25-30 minutes, rotating the pan around halfway through.
5. Allow yummy scent to waft through house. Drool. Let brownies cool then cut into squares and serve.
   
   That's it.  Trust me, this is a good idea. Even if you don't tell anyone in your family what's in them until after they eat the whole pan.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody! I hope you're enjoying yours as much as I'm enjoying mine! After a morning of serious baking followed by intense brunching with my brother-in-law and his wife, I'm off to give myself a tea tree steam facial and steal a nap before the feasting starts anew! 
Depending on how good they turn out, I may have a vegan stout brownie recipe to share with you tomorrow. We shall see. They're cooling now, and I can't wait to taste them. 
Enjoy the day, and Slainte!

My Valentines, in pictures

I had the best Valentine's Day that a mama could have ever had. I wish I took pictures of everything, but that would have spoiled the fun!

My Stenni and her Papa sharing a lemonade and some cheesy smiles.

Stenni and me and funny faces.

Handsome hubs and his big beer. I had one too. It was cold and delicious.

Our V-Day meal. We went to Fuddrucker's. We've gone every year for the past 12 years. You have no idea how much I look forward to a burger and a big beer every year!

Hubs put a little box in with Stenni's food when he went to pick the plates up. He said it came with her kid's meal! We opened it, and there were pretty matching pearl bracelets in it!

There was a lady making balloon characters at Fudd's this year, and she made Stenni this beautiful Cinderella! How cool, right? I love when places are kid-friendly, especially on holidays like V-day for the folks with little ones in tow!

We actually got professional family portraits done too (for the first time since our wedding, and the only time since Stenni was born), and we bought the copyright cd, so I may be sharing them with you soon too! I wish I had pictures of everything we did all night...I can't believe the stuff I don't have on film! We went out for cupcakes after dinner at Ava's Cupcakes, which is super awesome and adorable and has flavors like pancakes and bacon, or beer and pretzels (which is what I had, obvs). If you are every in the northwestern NJ area, I highly recommend stopping by there!  

So how was your Valentine's day?  

Super-fun, EASY Valentine's Craft

Omg this was so fun and easy. Let me start by saying that on Tuesday nights, my hubs goes right from work to teaching guitar lessons, and he doesn't come home until like 9, long after Stenni's in bed. So it's my "single parent" night, and I have to go it alone from when she wakes up til she goes to bed at night. (On a related note, God bless single parents. I don't know how they do it.) With a normal child, this might be completely fine. But for a child with Stenni's level of exuberance, lets just say that I'm ready to call in the reinforcements around 4 o'clock or so. So we try to stay really busy on Tuesdays doing fun stuff that isn't terribly complicated or expensive. This Tuesday we made Valentine's day t-shirts to match each other!!! This is big for me because she usually only wants to match Papa. Here's how we did it:

Buy a pack of cheap heart-shaped doilies and a cheap t-shirt. Use a clear-drying glue stick and use a little dab to attach one of the doilies on the front of the shirt, wherever you'd like your design. You just don't want to doily to move around when you're painting in the little holes.

Paint over the doily, using whatever colors of acrylic paint you'd like. We used a ton of glitter paint, in a bunch of different colors (this is Stenni's, obviously). 

(This one's mine. I'm clearly the mysterious one.)

She's totally having fun painting other stuff while I put the t-shirts off to the side. Also, a belated cautionary note: put newspaper over every single surface in your house that you don't want covered in paint.

Stenni's finished product!

My finished product!

Now Stenni and I have matching shirts to wear next Thursday! Woo-hoo! Plus, like I said, it couldn't have been easier. I feel kind of silly even giving a how-to tutorial! But it was super-fun anyway. 

BTDubs, I'm linking up at Not Just A Housewife and Reasons to Skip the Housework today.  Head over there for some inspiration and legit Valentine's crafts, as well as totally jealousy-inducing projects and recipes and cool other stuff.

An old-fashioned Christmas: Family Baking Time

We had to make 7+ dozen cookies for the cookie exchange the other day. Here's how we did it: multi-generational family baking time. This worked out well because my mom needed to use my mixer for her yummy red velvet cookies and I needed to use her baby-wrangling skills while I made my pfefferneusse. Stenni helped us both, and, with Christmas carols playing in the background, we got to share some pre-Christmas quality time.

Does this mean my baking is done? Not a chance! But this was super fun!

An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Activities

The one thing that I love most about Christmas is the slew of fun activities that we get to do. Like carolling. And making gingerbread houses. And decorating (though our decorations are not totally old-fashioned...hubs and Stenni love their fiber optic tree and LED lights). And driving around to see all of the Christmas lights. And watching old Christmas movies together.

I love to go caroling. I have gone with friends and family since I was in Daisies. I only recently stopped going, but now that Stenni can sing I think it's time we start it up again. I am currently in the midst of trying to teach Stenni Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and Deck the Halls, which is a tall order for a 2 year old. We will either go tonight or Sunday, but either way I can't wait? Never gone caroling? That's ok! Just try to remember all of your favorite Christmas songs, and then get bundled up and show up on the doorstop or your favorite friend or relative, or just someone you know is in need of some Christmas cheer. Begging for hot chocolate is optional.

Gingerbread house making, friends, is an activity that I believe should not be confined to the Christmas season, but that's ok. I like to buy the house kits with pre-made gingerbread, wait until everyone at my Chrismukkah party gets a little toasted, and let them have at it. It's kind of fun to see a crowd of half-in-the-bag adults put one of those suckers together! We got two kits this year, one for party time and one for family time. 

Decorating...eh, I almost didn't put this on the list. We decorate the tree in our house the day after Thanksgiving. We put some Christmas music on Pandora and light up the whole inside of the house with lights. I prefer the simple, rustic accoutrements made of things like actual wood and pine and fir and popcorn and cranberries and whatnot, but I have been overruled this year. Stenni said all she wanted for Christmas was Christmas lights, so that's what she got! We lit up the house like the 4th of July and she loves it, and that's the important part. (Remember between grumbles that Christmas is for the children.)

We also like to drive around to see all of the lights and decorations as a family. Lots of surrounding towns put up snowflake lights and holiday displays, and I took Stenni just the other day to see the Nativity, Christmas trees, and menorah outside the library while we were there to pick out a Christmas book. Then at night we drive around to the same houses that my parents took my sister and I to see as children, which still have elaborate outdoor decorations now! Oh, and also, if you're in the Northern New Jersey area, you need to take your kids to the Ice Caverns. Like, yesterday. It is this awesome Christmas display that is lit up and animated and kids love it and who am I fooling, I love it too. The only downside is that it costs a nominal fee these days (it used to be free years ago). But I think it's totally worth the $2.50 a person to see Stenni's eyes light up when she sees Snow White or Santa Claus or baby Jesus in the manger.

My last, most favorite activity, is one we started last night, kicking things off with The Muppet Christmas Carol. I love love love Christmas movies! We usually watch Emmit Otter's Jugband Christmas at my folks' house (if you haven't seen it, do. It's like Gift of the Magi, but with poor singing muppets). I do like musical movies with muppets in them...! But I'm also a fool for the old animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph, Miracle on 34th Street (hubs has never seen it...this will be the year!), and Little House on the Prairie's The Christmas They Never Forgot.

What other Christmas activities do you like to do to get into the groove for the season?

An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Snow Ice Cream

I love it when it snows, but I loathe the snow itself. I usually don't even step one toe out the door if I don't have to. My driveway and stairs to the lake turn into icy death slopes and my road doesn't ever get plowed. It's not only dangerous, it's terrifying. The idea of winter sports is completely unappealing to me. Personally, I like to snuggle inside by the fire with a good book and comfy socks and a heavy sweater and a cup of tea. Or scotch. Whatever.

But toddlers like snow. Ugh.

So that means I need to dig into my mom bag of tricks and do my thing to make it special for Stenni and not completely ruin the fun snow time that she deserves.

I tried sledding. We go every time it snows, and she loves it. And I get an extra workout. But really, it doesn't do it for me. But she likes it. We make snow angels. We made a snowman but by the time I went to get his accessories and Stenni's sled, she had already spear-tackled him to the ground. Good stuff.

But Stenni's number one fun time thing to do in the the snow? Eat it. Yeah, really. She loves to eat snow off of all available surfaces in our yard. I don't get it, but I figured I could work with it.

If you haven't already made snow ice cream, you are not living. Its worth stepping out your front door to scoop up some snow even if you're winter-phobic like me.

You really only need a few things:

• a big bowl
• a big spoon
•  a lot of snow
•  a can of sweetened condensed milk
•  some vanilla extract

Scoop up the snow into the bowl. Pack it down a little. I use my huge babka-making aluminum bowl, but just use the biggest one in your kitchen. A soup pot wouldn't be a bad idea. 
Then mix in the sweetened condensed milk. I usually use between 1/2 to just shy of a full can. Use enough vanilla for flavor but not enough to melt everything. Stir very well. Like, very well. You don't want to eat a chunk of pure vanilla extract ice. Not cool. Use a mixer if you want. It's prob a good idea to make it nice and smooth like actual ice cream.

Then eat it all up. Share it if you have to. Easy as pie. Plus, you get to stay inside all nice and toasty, which is a huge plus!

Round up the usual suspects and use your hugest bowl.

Remember to mix very well! Yours should look better than mine!

an old-fashioned Christmas season: an introduction

 

according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word "old-fashioned" means, among other things,

a : of, relating to, or characteristic of a past era 

b : adhering to customs of a past era 

 

i've got a confession to make: i'm a bit old-fashioned. i mean, yeah i totally dig electricity and smartphones and feminism and whatnot, but i still somewhat adhere to the "customs of a past era." in terms of my everyday life, this means that my family doesn't really buy what we can make at home (within reason; i'm not milling my own flour here), i stay at home with stenni while hubs works, and we enjoy the simple things: candlelight, woodstoves, reading actual books (i know i'm not the only e-reader hater out there), and spending time together as a family. but because of the time of year, i want to talk about having an old-fashioned Christmas season.

we only just returned from Christmas in the Village, a nice day out sponsored by my town's Arts Committee, held in a little historic section of town. in the few older buildings (including the gorgeous Jefferson Township Museum/George Chamberlin House that you see above, courtesy of the Jefferson Township Historical Society website), Christmas-related activities are held. there are buildings set up with tables for shopping, not to mention performances by carolers, a bell choir, and even madrigal singers (stenni was fascinated with the madrigal singers because she thought they were from the renaissance faire. i didn't correct her because it made her too happy). everything is beautifully decorated and it's a nice place to pick up unique or Christmas-related gifts, like wreaths, baked goods, and the like. I even bought a homemade candle with a gorgeous henna pattern on the side (which i haven't yet decided whether to gift or keep for myself). we sipped hot chocolate and strolled from one place to another until stenni was about to drop. it was a really pleasant way to spend a few hours. in the grand scheme of things, days like this are hard to come by because these kinds of activities seem to be in short supply. it's as if they are too quaint and old-fashioned for most people to enjoy nowadays. i wish the audience for things like this were bigger, because we certainly enjoy them and look forward to this event all year.

my very roundabout point is this: for the next few weeks up until Christmas (and New Year's, if I'm so inclined), I'll post ideas and tidbits about how my family has an old-fashioned Christmas, and yours can too. so have an old-fashioned Christmas with me this year!

 

 

3 words: pumpkin. mousse. cheesecake.

 

Thanksgiving was awesome, and not just because we got to see a ton of family. In the morning, hubs and I ran a 5K, and my brother-in-law came along for good measure (but totally smoked our time by like 13 minutes. ouch). he and his wife came back to my in-laws, where we picked up stenni and headed home to cook. for dinner, my folks, my sister and my in-laws came by, then later on my grandparents and hubs' cousin and his wife came by for a bit. it was a nice, steady crowd of people all day, and even though i completely forgot about the cranberry sauce and neglected to put out the napkins until we were halfway through our meal, it was really, really perfect.
but like most things in life, the best part was dessert. ok, maybe dessert was the second best part. the best part was hubs carving a turkey in his lederhosen apron with his beer stein oven mitts. for serious. don't  believe me? see for yourself:



At any rate, what I want to talk about right now is dessert. I wanted to add an extra dessert to the menu just in case we had extra people show up, and I'm pretty glad I did. But it had to be something ridiculously easy, because I had enough on my plate that day (so punny, right?). I wanted something pumpkin. But I also thought people might riot if there was no cheesecake of any type on the table. (My family is a riotous bunch.) Hubs said, "so why don't you make a pumpkin cheesecake?" and I almost made out with him on the spot because of his brilliance. after looking through a million cookbooks and websites, I found this one at skinnytaste and altered it very slightly to fit my needs and use what I already had in the kitchen so I didn't have to go out food shopping 100 more times. And it was awesome. oh, did i mention i had dieters coming over and that a slice is only 6 weight watchers points plus points? because it is, and that rocks. here you go, friends:

Pumpkin Mousse Cheesecake

• 1 8-oz tub reduced-fat whipped cream cheese or neufchatal
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (a little more is just fine if you want more pumpkin flavor, but don't go crazy because it'll make it heavier and more pie-like than fluffy)
• 1 tsp really good vanilla (or, if you really want, skip the vanilla and add about 1 Tbsp. of dark rum. it ups the spice factor but probably the WW points as well. but since I don't count points, I also don't care and I really like rum)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, if you're too cheap to shell out $6 for like an ounce of pumpkin pie spice, like I am)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, unpacked
  
• 8 oz-tub of fat free whipped topping, thawed
  
• 9-inch reduced fat Graham Cracker Crust

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, whip together cream cheese, pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar for a 4-5 minutes, until super fluffy. Add whipped topping and whip until smooth. Spoon mixture into pie crust and chill for a few hours until firm.

Original Recipe: Pumpkin Spice No-Bake Cheesecake @ Gina's Skinny Recipes

What was your favorite recipe this Thanksgiving? Didja try anything new? Tell me tell me tell me!

make yourself useful and...

 

host a cookie exchange.
it's not only useful, it's totally awesome. plus its an easy excuse for holiday mingling. all you need is a clean-ish house, some appetizers and maybe a few (possibly adult) beverages. it's like a cocktail party with a purpose. that purpose is making sure you have a ton of different kinds of cookies for platters that you can use at work parties, family get-togethers or as last-minute or hostess gifts. oh, and everyone loves cookies, especially homemade cookies. seriously. go ahead and try to prove me wrong.
i promise that this is one of the easiest holiday parties you'll ever give (the only hard part is making the cookies. but you can do that beforehand). here's how:
first, pick a few friends, family members, co-workers, or other people that you at least kind of like. every year, my mom and my sis and i get together with a the ladies of a family we've known forever. one is stenni's Godmother, her mom is my sister's Godmother, and her sister and daughter are also friends that we consider family but don't get to see nearly often enough. so it's us, the same core every year. 7 of us in total, so each of us makes 7 dozen cookies so that we can share a dozen of each kind and keep a dozen for ourselves.
then, invite them to your house at a time you know they're available. don't wait until Christmas eve, or a busy weekend evening. pick a "school night" so it's easier for everyone to schedule, and hold the party around 7, after dinner.
then pick a cookie recipe and cute packaging. i usually make a drop cookie or a spritz, something easy. i learned my lesson after i made 7 dozen cream-filled florentine lace cookies one year. while it might be a time to let your baking prowess shine, it's also time to be realistic. it's the holidays. everyone's busy. don't go the florentine lace route. there's nothing worse than getting frustrated, because then it becomes a chore instead of a joy. then bake the cookies and package them nicely, so that they can be given out as a gift.
lastly, put out the snacks and wait for everyone to come over. remember, this does not have to be formal, and in fact it's better if it's pretty casual. you don't even need any kind of activities (our group actually does Christmas trivia sometimes, but it's not competitive or anything, and if we're in the middle of something, we don't bother). the most important activity is distributing the delicious cookies! this time of year everyone's overdoing everything. you want yours to be the one get together that everyone enjoys because they don't feel rushed or pressured.
so that's it. remember, the party can be short, as in 2 hours or so. we're all tired this time of year. don't push anything. but maybe you'll want to linger with friends around a cup of coffee, and that's alright too. there are no hard and fast rules for hosting a cookie exchange, except that you have to exchange cookies. that's it. do what comes naturally.
looking into the future: my next cookie exchange will take place in the middle of December. I'm not actually hosting this year, so I can use a little more energy on baking! in the past i've done the aforementioned florentine lace cookies as well as some classic oatmeal raisins, snickerdoodles, and some miniature chocolate whoopie pies, among others. some of the other ladies have made pignioli cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, macaroons, double chocolate cookies, and even oreos wrapped inside chocolate chip cookie dough! it's getting harder and harder to pick my cookie recipe every year, but i've narrowed it down to  zimtsterne (German cinnamon stars), pfeffernusse (German spice cookies), or maybe even gingersnaps. what do you think? have you ever hosted or attended a cookie exchange?

Thankful: Thirty Things

Jenna from It's Just Called Spicy is hosting a 30 Days of Thanks link party, and I just had to link up because I have soooo very much to be thankful for this year. Also, I wanted to do this before Thanksgiving actually  comes, so..

Here goes nothing:
1. stenni, my beautiful, sweet, cheesy, brilliant little girl.
2. my hubs. he's so awesome i can't even deal with it sometimes. he is also beautiful, sweet, cheesy and brilliant. i see where stenni gets it from. i'm a very lucky lady.
3. the two swans who live on my lake. i'm not sure about the migration habits of swans but they aren't always around. when they are it makes my day. they are always together and i think it's so sweet.
4. deandra, my puppy, and her boundless energy.
5. the awesomest cat trifecta, mogan, conan and baby kitty, who always form the cat triforce of wisdom by always laying in a triangle formation.
6. the fact that my husband FINALLY got his transfer to a different location at work! woo hoo, we've been waiting for this transfer for about a year now!
7. for the moment, living so close to my family, especially my grandparents, who are right next door!
8. having electricity. for reals, i could never do that pioneer/Amish crap. i didn't really know that for certain until the hurricane hit.
9. my family making it out of last month's hurricane safe and sound, with only minor damage to our houses (and thankfully not to us).
10. indoor plumbing. again, hurricane-related. i'm thankful for all that the hurricane taught me, but not the hurricane itself. that would be ridiculous.
11. that as a woman, i can vote, get an education, work if i'd like, and also raise my family. i like that a lot.
12. having a close friend with a daughter the same age as mine, so that they can play together while we do.
13. jazzercise! yes i'm totally serious! it's like a total girl-power workout, and if you know my love of the spice girls you can understand my appreciation of all things girl power.
14. the fact that they re-opened the pocono bazaar flea market. just in time for Christmas!

15. the cabin at hankins, ny (family picture minus my mom at left)
16. that stenni gets to know all 4 grandparents, and whole set of great grandparents!
17. always having enough to share with others.
18. the bright colors in my home. my yellow kitchen and my orange bathroom!
19. having a home to call our own, even if we have already outgrown it!
20. being almost finished with potty training (i can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!)
21. my health
22. my parents. usually. ;)
23. my sister. we don't get to hang out as much as i'd like, but she's ok in my book.
24. my education. i went to a wonderful women's liberal arts college, and i'm glad that i had the experience of being in classrooms full of women throughout my 4 years there. i learned so much from them, and not just the professors!
25. my favorite slippers. i got them on a trip to Ireland over 10 years ago and they are still warm and fuzzy and wonderful!
26. living in NJ, the best place in the world hands down! we have the beach, the mountains, farmland, and everything within a few hours' drive. yay garden state!
27. TODAY! it's a new day, you know.
28. having a ton of frozen tomato sauce in my freezer from the garden this year. every time i open one up it smells like august!
29. all of my books. i love to look at them all. oh and read them too.
30. hosting thanksgiving at my house again this year, for the 8th year in a row!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

couch to 5k

I am soooo psyched to say that the hubs and I are running our first 5k on Thanksgiving morning, Krogh's Turkey Trot! As I've mentioned before, I'm totally not a runner. I haven't really run any long distances since field hockey in high school (which was quite a while ago...as in coming up on my 10-year reunion ago). I don't really know what started us off, but in the summer we started jogging to my parents' house to swim and ride bikes, and then jogging back. We kind of ramped it up from there. I'm not sure when we decided to do the 5k thing, but we've been "training" since then. Training really just means running a few times a week for 2 to 4 miles at a time, whenever we can.
We were doing really well for a while. Then that one-two punch combo of Hurricane Sandy and the time change made it impossible to go running after hubs comes home from work. We have had to scale it back to the weekends, but still try to fit in at least 2 runs a week! That first run we went on after we had to take 2 1/2 weeks off was pretty tough, and by pretty tough I mean that I wanted to lie down in the middle of the road and let my lungs collapse and not ever run another step again.
We are just about back to where we were before we had our little setbacks. One of the tools that I used to base our runs was the popular "Couch to 5k" program that you may or may not have already seen on pinterest. I'm going to share it in case it might be of any use to you. We changed it up a little, but used this as a minimum guideline for our runs each week in order to get ready.

 

ps...this is TOTALLY necessary to prep for the total calorie overload that will occur later Thanksgiving day! Maybe, just maybe, I'll burn off a piece of pumpkin cheesecake preemptively!

PAPA DAY!

You may be wondering why you're hearing from me after a particularly long absence. The reason is that we are stuck in the house today! Not only is it going to be about 95 degrees or so, but Stenni was playing with her cousins yesterday and fell, hurting her leg pretty badly. According to the x-rays, nothing's broken, but she still won't walk on it and we're waiting on a call-back from the doctor. So, aside from a possible trip to target (where i can push Stenni around in the cart and she won't have to walk)  to pick up some cat litter and vacation supplies and use their free air conditioning and an i'm-hoping-not-but-it-could-happen additional trip to the doctor, we will probably spend the entire day lazing around until the hubs gets home.
I wanted to tell everyone about what we did for father's day, because it was pretty awesome. We had a scavenger hunt, and every clue led to a handmade gift from Stenni. Plus, papa had to use his stenni-knowledge to find the next clue (as in, "who is my favorite teatime playmate? find him, because he has something for you!" then he had the #1 papa glitter medal around his neck and an envelope with with the next clue). we hid other stuff in their favorite stenni/papa book, on top of the fan, and out in the garden. then stenni gave her papa his new cactus/succulent garden (she picked out all the plants in the home depot the other day) and his toddler-sized card, which was covered in tons and tons of glitter, cuz my baby girl loves herself some glitter. then for dinner we all made awesome mall-style pretzels together and watched baseball. it was a perfect all-American papa day and we were so glad to spend it together since the hubs has been working ALL THE TIME to make a few extra bucks for vacation.
anyway, here's the pretzel recipe, adapted from a recipe i found on allrecipes.com, naturally. i'm terrible at rolling them out, but besides that they were perfect. we made about 75% salted and 25% cinnamon sugar (for eating with beer and cider, respectively), but next time we may try new toppings like garlic and whatnot. the recipe says it makes 12, but it can really make as many as you want if you make them smaller, or a few really big pretzels. you can even get creative and make letters or shapes if you're so inclined. we might do something like that for stenni's 2nd birthday in fact. 

mall pretzels

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast (or I used about a scant tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/8 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt, cinnamon sugar or other topping

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast, brown sugar and salt in 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough on a floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes (or, knead in bowl of electric mixer for 10 minutes). Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.
2. Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8 inch square pan. Line 6 baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape, and dip into the baking soda solution. Place onto parchment covered baking sheets, and let rise about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees.
5. Brush with melted butter, and sprinkle with toppings of choice. Bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. 
6. Cool for a minute or two (or as long as you can stand. i chose not at all!) before serving.

then, eat with mustard and beer. or cider. or whatever you want. i won't judge. 

i'm off to do a little state fair research to figure out what i'll be entering this year. holding my breath for a 1st or 2nd place this time!

Cinco de Mayo...

Cinco de Mayo is one of only two holidays that my husband willingly celebrates. The other is Opening Day (of baseball season; we had a cool party this year with bar food and obvs baseball-watching). The rest I need to practically force him to participate in, with the possible exception of Christmas, but just the decorating part (he likes lights).

However, this year we've got a ton of stuff going on. Like my cousin's first Holy Communion that we were supposed to be going to. But my husband had to take a day of work on the farm so he wasn't going to be able to make it. Then yesterday, out of nowhere, Stenni came down with a 102 degree fever (while we were out shopping for said cousin's present! So guess who is getting a $20 in a card?). The poor little creature is miserable and all she wants to do is cuddle, which is alright by me. So we are staying home to cuddle. And maybe do some holiday prep.

But Cinco de Mayo has a special place in my heart too. It was the first time I ever had heartburn. Seriously. When I was pregnant with Stenni, about 5 months along, we went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo. Having never gotten past 5 months of pregnancy before, I had NO IDEA that you weren't supposed to eat spicy foods the further along you were. I had literally no clue what was going on when, one spicy enchilada and a ton of pico de gallo later, I was sure that I was having a heart attack. After I got home, calmed down and consulted the interwebs, I realized that I was not going to die, took some antacids, drank some milk and went to bed. Ah, the memories.

But in pre-pregnancy days, we used to have some massive and amazing Cinco de Mayo parties complete with pinatas and sombreros and margaritas and Mexican beers and always mojitos even though they are Cuban. But these days I can't touch a mojito (or a margarita, or even Mexican beer for that matter), so I'm going to settle for some carne asada tacos and a tres leches cake. Baking generally keeps my little one occupied no matter how she feels, so I'm hoping between cuddles we can do it up before hubs comes home, and possibly even throw a poncho on the wall or something for good measure and a little ambiance. I'll be making The Pioneer Woman's Tres Leches Cake, but substituting some lite coconut milk for the evaporated milk (makes it a little more tropical-tasting I think) and maybe throwing in a splash of coconut rum for good measure. And I'm skipping the cherries cuz I don't have them and I also don't want to stain my hands red for a week. If you've never tried Tres Leches Cake, DO IT NOW. I promise you won't regret it, as long as you have a sweet tooth. Otherwise I really can't say. At the Bravo near us (a big Hispanic supermarket), they have a quatro leches cake. Can you handle 4 milks? Because I would be on my way to pick one up right now if not for the sicky baby.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody!

confessions of a casual hostess

i host most of the holidays for my family and friends, including but not limited to:

• Easter
• cinco de mayo
• everyone's birthdays
• baseball opening day (yeah, it's a holiday in my house)
• occasionally halloween
• thanksgiving
• Christmas/Hanukkah/holiday/new year's party, which is never to fall on any of those occasions
  
• an assortment of half-holidays (like half St. patrick's day...oh, you don't celebrate half st. patty's? shame on you!)
  

for memorial day, the 4th of july, veteran's day and Christmas, we usually go away, and Christmas morning brunch is usually a group effort at my folks' house. i like it better sometimes (especially on Christmas) when i don't have to deal with all of the hassle of cleaning and preparing and i can enjoy the company of everyone...plus around Christmastime everyone is throwing parties, and i don't want mine to be another imposition or stop on a long tour of stops throughout the day. that's just not how i roll. i like sitting on the deck singing and chatting until the wee hours of the morning. i enjoy playing dominoes for hours. i really think it's great when people go for seconds and thirds of all of the food that is prepared either ahead of time or throughout the evening. but there are things i don't like about entertaining too, and other things that i do very badly. sometimes i even do things that are definite no-no's for people who actually entertain on a regular basis.
here are some examples:

• i hate "tablescapes." i hate the word "tablescape." i'm all for minor decorating (i usually do for cinco de mayo and hubs is all about Christmas lights), but to go all out and then have all of the pretty, impractical things in the way of the food and drink? no way. not happening. maybe a centerpiece, depending on the occasion, and a tablecloth with matching napkins. and some candles, if you're lucky. the food should be pretty enough to be its own decoration.
• every meal i host is a buffet. i am not sitting you down and serving you. i made everything, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone loves every single thing (though they should). so i'm not going to put it on your plate and have you hate it. i like when people pick. so what if at Easter you just want ham and liquor, much like my brother-in-law? that's fine by me. but i'm not going to make a plate for you with everything on it, or serve you in courses, when i don't always know your preferences.
• my bbq's usually involve meat and only meat. no sides, no salads, nothing like that. occasionally we'll roast some onions, peppers, asparagus, and pineapple, for use on burgers and sausage. once or twice i grilled peaches, but i think i was the only one who ate them. i learned to do this through trial and error. i used to host a bbq with the hubs every friday. at first we made all kinds of stuff: pasta salad, cole slaw, desserts, you get the idea. but when everyone saw the ribs, chicken drumsticks, hot dogs and giant burgers, no one touched anything else. if we want to serve food that isn't meat, we call it something else, but not a bbq.
• i only sometimes plan activities, and they are not always entirely appropriate to the occasion. sometimes we'll have a pinata for cinco de mayo, and sometimes we will make a gingerbread house for Christmas. i've even been known to play board games on game night. but other times, we are making leftover gingerbread houses in the middle of the summer or having snowshoe bbq's or making snowcones in january or churros for a going-away party. i like to mix it up and base activities off what's fun, what's handy, who's around and how much we've had to drink.
• rain does not necessarily cancel an outdoor party. i come from a family of roofers. we can tarp off anything. some of the best parties i've had have been outside in the pouring rain under a tarp city. doesn't do much for ambiance, but you won't forget it.
• sometimes i leave in the middle of my own parties for a bit. like to take the dog for a walk. or to go to sleep if it's super late and hubs still seems to be feeling froggy. this only happens at "friends" parties, not "family" ones. friends are more understanding when i randomly disappear.
• with the exception of holiday dinners (at which time everyone is incredibly prompt with fork in hand at the specified time), i usually tell people that the party begins an hour or two before it really does. why? because my friends usually fun at least an hour or two late for no discernible reason, even the ones who live down the block.
  

my point is, you don't have to be a great hostess. you just have to try. i haven't always been the best. hey, i'm not the best now. but i like to make people feel comfortable in my home, not like if they reach for the butter they'll mess up the tablescape. good food and good company are usually about all you need for folks to have a good time.