Happy Earth Day, everybody.
Earth Day is a great opportunity to think of your annual spring cleaning in a green way. De-clutter, downsize, rethink what you have, need, want, and use.
Pittsfield and Scarlett will be having Donation Drives with the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop in May. What a great opportunity to give away to others while clearing out some space in your life. All donations help the schools in so many ways.
More info to come. Stay tuned...
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Slob-proofing and the secret inner life of the happy homemaker
I admit it. I can be a little OCD with the cleaning of the house. I'm better than I used to be but I still do L-O-V-E a clean, tidy home and I will often do exactly what it takes to get it that way.
When you live in a teeny, tiny space like mine in The Village, you become accustomed to the constant picking-up, tidying, de-cluttering followed by the down-to-basics dusting, cleaning, wiping needed to keep the place looking reasonable. The tidying takes forever. It literally seems never-ending to me. A family in the space requires that all of us living here be on the same page and that isn't always the case. They try but only after some serious nagging and/or after I give them the look.
The cleaning actually doesn't actually take that long because the place is so small. But small spaces means that clutter builds up faster. Once the clutter is out of the way, the rest is easy. The problem I find is that I'm so wiped out from the tidying that the next step just seems like too much. I have lost the energy needed to go the extra mile.
At times like these, I look for those little cheats that make my life easier. Or perhaps they just make me a little happier. Well, they certainly help to get me closer to happier a little faster. Yes, fast and easy. No wonder I get an endorphin rush from a clean house!
These include the double laundry hamper I can throw everything in and - voila - the house looks picked up. The slight patten to the area rugs hide less-than-perfect care. Dramatic contrast of dark and light to take the eye away from the flaws in older paint job on the walls. The books pulled out to the edge of the bookshelf to make appear as a smooth surface and pushes away the dust from the edge of the shelf, away from view. There are lots of cheats like this we all have.
When I ran across a link on my Twitter feed today - thanks to the Amish Furniture folks - it reminded me of the sneaky little things I do to keep the place looking spiffy in a jiffy without breaking a sweat.
It is about furniture designed for slobs. Or perhaps, with slobs in mind, would be a better way to put it.
It caught my attention because it is marketed as something different. It's designed to be a big cheat, of sorts. Check out this so-called furniture line for slobs: "gently-priced, family-friendly, eco-friendly and slob-proof" furniture. It sounds fantastic - almost too good to be true. I will be checking this out myself a little further... It could be perfect for me. I'm not a slob - and neither are you - but we can all use a little less time taking care of our homes and a little more time taking care of ourselves. Think dark chocolate, red wine, great movies while curled up on your slob-resistant furniture...
The prints and patterns featured in these pics in the piece on their own will hide most trouble a family may spill up on itself. Not to mention the pets...
No, I won't really mention them. That is so far out of my area of knowledge or expertise. I won't go there.
In the meantime, my own slob-proof adventures in furniture include my reupholstered dining room chairs - renewed for me by The Great Cover Up, home to a true local furniture artist and restorer - in wonderful, family-friendly fabric for next to no money that I wash with dish soap and warm water once a month or before hosting a party - whichever comes first. (That's usually the party.)
Such an amazing, easy care solution she offered me with this fabric years ago. It was a good move. And if - more likely, when - I want to upgrade to something more soothing and smooth to the touch (and a bit more expensive, I imagine) I will head back to the small shop on Chesterfield with my six chairs in tow. (What a perfect street for an upholsterer, eh? Chesterfield Street!)
The other good move made was the apartment sized couch purchased from Three Chairs in Ann Arbor a few years ago.
It was listed as the Annie sofa so it was literally calling my name... I had to buy it. And what a buy it was!
Still, after many years of living with our family - and being the main place we plop ourselves for our in-house dvd or on-line Netflix viewing marathons - it is still looking pretty darn good.
It is a microfiber sofa so it also comes clean with a cloth soaked in dish-soapy, warm water. Very easy care, compact and still looking as good as it feels to curl up on. It is still the most comfortable place to sit in the living room.
It's simple, straightforward soap-and-water cleaning. Plus a little extra elbow grease thrown in when I have put it off a little too long - I tend to not wipe the furniture down as often as I should. When I get around to it, it can be a bigger job. It's on my big spring cleaning list, one based on Martha Stewart's list - something to look forward to. Hey, this stuff is easy care but it's not self-cleaning nor is it not totally slob-proof... yet.
This all feels a bit confessional - like soaking my nails in dish soap, talking with Madge the manicurist - admitting to my obvious cleaning obsession while owning up to the fact that I don't actually clean it all that often or that well, perhaps. Yes, I do confess: I rely heavily on my cheats.
It's a little secret of mine - something which keeps me happy on the home-front. Pass the chocolate and the remote.
When you live in a teeny, tiny space like mine in The Village, you become accustomed to the constant picking-up, tidying, de-cluttering followed by the down-to-basics dusting, cleaning, wiping needed to keep the place looking reasonable. The tidying takes forever. It literally seems never-ending to me. A family in the space requires that all of us living here be on the same page and that isn't always the case. They try but only after some serious nagging and/or after I give them the look.
The cleaning actually doesn't actually take that long because the place is so small. But small spaces means that clutter builds up faster. Once the clutter is out of the way, the rest is easy. The problem I find is that I'm so wiped out from the tidying that the next step just seems like too much. I have lost the energy needed to go the extra mile.
At times like these, I look for those little cheats that make my life easier. Or perhaps they just make me a little happier. Well, they certainly help to get me closer to happier a little faster. Yes, fast and easy. No wonder I get an endorphin rush from a clean house!
These include the double laundry hamper I can throw everything in and - voila - the house looks picked up. The slight patten to the area rugs hide less-than-perfect care. Dramatic contrast of dark and light to take the eye away from the flaws in older paint job on the walls. The books pulled out to the edge of the bookshelf to make appear as a smooth surface and pushes away the dust from the edge of the shelf, away from view. There are lots of cheats like this we all have.
It is about furniture designed for slobs. Or perhaps, with slobs in mind, would be a better way to put it.
It caught my attention because it is marketed as something different. It's designed to be a big cheat, of sorts. Check out this so-called furniture line for slobs: "gently-priced, family-friendly, eco-friendly and slob-proof" furniture. It sounds fantastic - almost too good to be true. I will be checking this out myself a little further... It could be perfect for me. I'm not a slob - and neither are you - but we can all use a little less time taking care of our homes and a little more time taking care of ourselves. Think dark chocolate, red wine, great movies while curled up on your slob-resistant furniture...
The prints and patterns featured in these pics in the piece on their own will hide most trouble a family may spill up on itself. Not to mention the pets...
No, I won't really mention them. That is so far out of my area of knowledge or expertise. I won't go there.
In the meantime, my own slob-proof adventures in furniture include my reupholstered dining room chairs - renewed for me by The Great Cover Up, home to a true local furniture artist and restorer - in wonderful, family-friendly fabric for next to no money that I wash with dish soap and warm water once a month or before hosting a party - whichever comes first. (That's usually the party.)
Such an amazing, easy care solution she offered me with this fabric years ago. It was a good move. And if - more likely, when - I want to upgrade to something more soothing and smooth to the touch (and a bit more expensive, I imagine) I will head back to the small shop on Chesterfield with my six chairs in tow. (What a perfect street for an upholsterer, eh? Chesterfield Street!)
It was listed as the Annie sofa so it was literally calling my name... I had to buy it. And what a buy it was!
Still, after many years of living with our family - and being the main place we plop ourselves for our in-house dvd or on-line Netflix viewing marathons - it is still looking pretty darn good.
It is a microfiber sofa so it also comes clean with a cloth soaked in dish-soapy, warm water. Very easy care, compact and still looking as good as it feels to curl up on. It is still the most comfortable place to sit in the living room.
It's simple, straightforward soap-and-water cleaning. Plus a little extra elbow grease thrown in when I have put it off a little too long - I tend to not wipe the furniture down as often as I should. When I get around to it, it can be a bigger job. It's on my big spring cleaning list, one based on Martha Stewart's list - something to look forward to. Hey, this stuff is easy care but it's not self-cleaning nor is it not totally slob-proof... yet.
This all feels a bit confessional - like soaking my nails in dish soap, talking with Madge the manicurist - admitting to my obvious cleaning obsession while owning up to the fact that I don't actually clean it all that often or that well, perhaps. Yes, I do confess: I rely heavily on my cheats.
It's a little secret of mine - something which keeps me happy on the home-front. Pass the chocolate and the remote.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Gadgets gadgets gadgets.... argh!
I read this piece today in the NYTimes Dining section on kitchen appliances and gadgets at a trade show and it hit a nerve right away.
The vendors at this show are the trendsetters who shape our lives and our kitchens - we, the mothers, the "deciders" in home - the kitchen gate-keepers.
These vendors are real-world Jack Donaghy's.
If you are not one of the 100 or so dedicated viewers of NBC's 30 Rock, Jack Donaghy - played by Alec Baldwin - alludes to the importance in history of the invention of the popcorn button on the microwave and was himself, until recently, the executive in charge of an NBC TV show and microwave ovens. He is famous for the invention of the Trivection oven... It's very funny and it's all at GE's appliance division's expense.
Life imitates "art" in this slightly bizarro-world NYT piece on the new kitchen gadgets. For the price of nearly an entire Ikea kitchen remodel of my 7 ft x 8 ft kitchen (granted, only a low-end remodel), I could buy a Frigidaire oven with a chicken nugget button on it. Can't find the nugget button? It's right next to the frozen pizza button...
While I am loving the time saving - and don't begrudge anyone the luxury of one more bedtime story or Uno game with their kids that the occasional batch of frozen chicken nuggets might afford - this is going too far: too far into anyone's wallet let alone mine. I am all for multi-use but the bottom line is the bottom line.
A $2000-$3000 appliance to cook Mc-food? Are we all really having such trouble cooking up our chicken nuggets just so? What is a "perfect chicken nugget", anyway other than a culinary oxymoron.
Isn't this the year that Julia Child made a comeback and sales of her bible/cookbook soared. Are we all just using that tome as home decor, prestige pieces on the bookshelf or strategically placed next to the over-priced 6-burner oven or, perhaps, it is light reading while we distractedly cook perfect chicken nuggets with the push of a button? ... What would Julia say?
Clearly, I have ruled out buttons-for-nuggets big-ticket appliances for my kitchen. But I considered the smaller toaster ovens with the pizza "bump". I use a toaster oven rather than a toaster already for it's multi-use flexibility. And since we don't buy pre-sliced bread, and a toaster just gets our unevenly sliced Texas-sized chunks o' bread stuck and burnt, it's the practical choice for our household. We don't like or use croutons enough to handle all that burnt toast.
But with a food allergy to corn in our household, I barely even have a frozen pizza I can buy that meets both the corn-free criteria and the taste buds of my used-to-mummy-made-food. Trader Joe's cheese pizzas worked the last time I checked their ingredients but only if I add a lot more cheese to them and some other toppings. I'm not sure these would fit into the bumped-out, pimped-out toaster ovens anyway.
I just turn on the regular, cheapo apartment-sized 24-inch oven, heat, and serve - poor, specialty-appliance-deprived soul that I am.
Eyeball it for yourself. Do you see space on that counter for a designer Italian toaster oven with a "bump"? Somebody else will have to buy those gadgets. And they likely will, launching yet another Jack Donaghy into the premium appliance market stratosphere...
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A guide to recognizing your springtime saints
My daughter just experienced one of the rites of AAPS 5th grade on Friday. She went on her winter survival field trip. She did, indeed, survive.
In the past, I've known kids who had considerably more wintery survival experiences on these outings in the bush north of Ann Arbor. Sometimes wearing inappropriate footwear and/or bringing food that may never cook, those kids returned exhilarated, smokey and perhaps a little cold and hungry.
Not my girl. Not this year. Some great saint of spring was watching over these children from Pittsfield on Friday. What a glorious day they had. All fires going, all food cooked. My daughter said she was in charge of grilling - that's my girl! The oo-ing and ahh-ing over the food went on for days. Oh, yeah. That is my girl!
We celebrate any and all potential holiday dates, people, and events with some kind of special meal or party in my small Village indoor space. And year after year, it works. Amazingly, exhaustingly, it works. We start out the fall with Canadian Thanksgiving and just never stop having a reason to tidy and clean the house, cook or heat up, as the case often is, eat and drink with friends. In fact, I'm itching to have a party again. It has been almost 3 weeks since our last dinner event...
I just have to wait for the foot of snow to melt in the backyard - a full northern-exposure enclave, sheltered from most of the day's sun by our home. It gets only a slice of the morning sun. I'll have to get out there and shovel it out. There is so much hardened snow and ice on our deck right now - a 53 degree F, gorgeous day - I had to crawl outside the window by the deck to take this picture this morning.
By late February, I do tend to feel like I am hanging on to so very much by the tips of my fingers: my budget, my waistline, my sanity. After months of being cooped up inside, coping through food, friends and Netflix, I see light in early March when the bulbs pop up in my garden and the roads clear.
I can run again - outside - and I actually want to run again. Running outside helps me out all three ways - the road is cost-free to run, I trim down automatically, and I feel like myself again - body and soul. I think more clearly, I feel more positive, and actually get more accomplished when I have that little daily run on the road back in my life again each spring.
Starting up again is as easy as walking. I use a modified, shortened version of a Couch-to-5k Plan. As a merely lapsed runner and not a totally new convert, I can get into it a little quicker and often can run the 5k on the first try after many months off. But not always. In those cases, I start over by walking, then adding as many steps of jogging (I don't think you can call my early pace actual running) as I can. Then I walk again until my heart rate comes back down, I can breathe more easily, and I feel like I can do some more jogging. I keep going like that each time until, eventually, I am running more than I'm walking. In just a few of these, I can "run" the whole 5K or 3.12 miles. I usually start this routine again just after a doctor's visit, getting a baseline on my overall health. That usually offers the final incentive to get going on the road once again.
Although I discovered that the girls and I are too late to register for Shamrocks and Shenanigans 5k race this year, I started "training" for it almost 10 days ago now and could do it easily - if not quickly - but for the 5k registration being capped and full now. No matter. The running is back in my life again and the kids can still register to run the Kids Kilometer. It's a fun event - check it out! Downtown Ann Arbor is always packed for it and buzzing. I will run my own 5k race on St. Patrick's Day instead to mark the occasion. Others will undoubtably celebrate the saint in other ways...
The corn allergy in the house is a tricky one to negotiate. My daughter has been a hivey mess for a while now. The corn-free treats I pick up at the front of the store in their Passover display are lifesavers at this time of year.
And the four bags of Bazooka Joe kosher bubble gum is going fast, too! I've been chewing gobs of it on my runs every day for a week. This is literally blessed gum - and in its strawberry incarnation it is a powerful evocation of childhood, springtime bike rides around my hometown of Espanola. But these cartoons are written in Hebrew. I love it! Yet another sign of spring...
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Happy - and golden - New Year, Tiger!
Lots of great food, snowy days curled up with NBC, and a side or two of socializing with friends, young and old. It seems to have been an embarrassment of riches for this mid-winter fortnight: Olympic, culinary and otherwise.
It has been particularly good this Olympic year to feel like a host of the games even though we live here in Ann Arbor, so very far away from Vancouver. We have felt connected and - strangely - responsible for the feelings on the festivities. I am so glad too that it's over and was successful for both of our "home" teams. Good on you both!
The whole experience has given us reason to celebrate. And there was much feasting today - and no cooking involved for me. Just watching some hockey, on the edge of my seat, and soaking up the skin-of-their-teeth golden moment for Team Canada. Sorry all-around to our friends here, but not winning gold in hockey would have been so devastating for Canadians - a real blow to the collective, national psyche. Team USA played so well - I thought they deserved the gold but the score just happened to say otherwise today. Certainly, their goalie deserved the tournament mvp. He was impressive. But I am happy for the country, for family, friends and everyone across the border that it was won by Canada on home ice. It was a Hollywood (North) ending. But enough of hockey... They will be talking about this for a generation, eh?!
Earlier in the Year of the Tiger celebrations, I made some celebratory dinner for my family. By "made", I mean that I boiled up noodles with stir fried ginger beef, steamed and pan-fried dumplings, and quickly sauteed some Chinese greens with garlic, pictured left. A lot of it I didn't actually "make" at all but rather "heated up". The bamboo steamers are great for that. The yu choy cooks very quickly up in the wok - rinsed and salted - in a little canola oil with fragrant garlic cooked quickly first.The yu choy tips are a family favorite - fresh, healthy, tasty. I get them as Huaxing Asia Market in Ypsilanti. Inexpensive, at $1.99/lb - I L-O-V-E them for that too! Easy to cook this meal, with only the back two burners being used. One wok, one large pot of water and my bamboo steamers. I get the shrimp dumplings we love from Trader Joe's and the frozen pork buns from the Huaxing Asia Market as well. The pork buns are steamed. The dumplings are done in the wok first with a touch of oil, then a splash of water added and a lid placed on it so it can steam. They get perfectly crispy on the bottom. Yum yum!
All the girl friends and mums celebrated earlier this week with a dim sum lunch midweek at Great Lake Seafood Restaurant. Thanks to our friends Amy and Alyssa for organizing that with friends, old and some new. Even my little girl got to tag along with the teenagers... Much thanks to the big girls for letting her crash.
We closed out today with a trip to Great Lake for dim sum - again. Oh, yeah! With the tax refund in the bank account and these Vancouver Games a roaring success in our eyes, we were out to truly relax and celebrate before an afternoon of skating at Vets Park Arena for half of us and workouts at Planet Fitness for the other.
Ohh... The treats! Calamari: so sweet, so tender, so worth it. I never eat deep-fried food but this was like candy - deep-fried-seafood-candy!
The egg tarts and the sweet glazed barbeque pork buns are my girls favorites, too. Each only available on the weekends. Take a look at the weekend-only cart they wheel around covered in baked Chinese goodies, pictured further above. Well worth this Olympic weekend trip with my family.
But soon it will be over. The Olympic Closing Ceremonies are about to get rolling. Tomorrow, it's back-to-school for the kids and a tough new exercise routine for me. Today at Planet Fitness, I began Day One of 10 Days To Shake My World. I need to run 5k minimum, up to 5 miles maximum for 10 days straight. I was inspired by all those folks in Vancouver. Wish me luck - Golden-Olympic-Tiger luck!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Pulla recipe - so good, so simple, so inexpensive to make
I started doing some baking the other day. Serial baking is a better way to describe it, to help fight the winter blues.
I was in search of more than just an everyday, ordinary carb-high. Chips would NOT do. I wanted memories and meaning and depth. So, I pulled out an old recipe and baked a favorite bread from my childhood. Pulla : sometimes known as Finn bun or Finnish coffee bread.
It's braided, infused with cardamom, and looks as good as it tastes. You can decorate it - like I did for Valentine's Day - and shape it however you like. It's a great, forgiving dough to work with.
I just cut this batch of dough in half after making the 3 dough snakes - giving me 6 shorter snakes - shaped them into two separate round braids, and put them in cake pans lined with parchment. It was a whole new look. There was an extra feel-good bonus to it too. It produced one bread to keep and one to give away. Sharing is good medicine for the blue soul in winter, too. Even better than carbs.
Ooo, and one final hybrid idea for this recipe. This dough makes an incredible cinnamon roll base too! Check it out...
Bread is inexpensive when you make it yourself and stock the ingredients in your fridge (like a jar of yeast, butter, milk, eggs) and pantry (bread flour, sugar, decorator sugars, and ground or whole spices like cinnamon and cardamom from East-Indian markets like Bombay Grocers in Ann Arbor). If you've never made bread before, give this one a try and invite your kids along for your baking adventure.
Ann's Favorite Pulla Recipe- from a fellow Northern Ontario Finn
In a large mixing bowl, combine these dry ingredients.
1 Tablespoon or 1 pkg of Quick Rise/Rapid Rise/Bread Machine yeast, like the one I stock, shown here
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour - set aside another cup of flour as well for working the dough
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Mix to spread the spice throughout. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, combine these wet ingredients. These need to be warm to activate the yeast. Too cool, the yeast won't work. Too hot, the yeast will be killed.
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/3 cup warm milk
1 egg, lightly beaten (best at room temperature so it doesn't cool off your other liquids)
Mix lightly.
Make a well in the center of the large bowl of dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients in and mix with a wide wooden spoor or spatula until the wet and dry ingredients are combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl as you go. It should begin to get tough to mix with the spoon.
With clean hands (rings off, please) continue to mix the dough as it begins to separate from the side of the bowl. Add some of the reserved flour as needed, a Tablespoon at a time to achieve this.
Now add the final ingredient.
1/3 cup softened butter.
This will be greasy and sticky at first but you will feel this dough start to come together as you work it in your hands, squeezing it to spread the butter throughout.
Knead - a process of folding over the dough and pushing with the heel of your hand - the dough. Knead it well enough to spread the butter well and work the dough so it no longer feels sticky, gluey, or greasy. Add a bit of flour as needed to get the feel of a smooth, elastic dough which easily forms a ball in the center of bowl, fully separated from the sides.
There are great tips on kneading in cookbooks and on-line but the best way to know how this works is to get your hands in there and do it. Get the feel of the dough as it changes. I posted a short video of my one-handed kneading of this dough so you can see the look of the dough as it gets to that last stage where it's ready to be set aside to rise. View it on my annarbor.com blog.
Cover the bowl with a dish towel or other clean cloth. Set in a warm, draft-free area and let it rise for just 10 minutes. Lightly spread flour on a clean surface - a large bread board, butcher block, table or counter top will do. Remove the dough from the bowl and, with a sharp knife, cut the dough into three equal parts. This doesn't have to be perfect division. More or less is good enough.
Roll these dough segments into long snakes of dough of approximately equal length. I do this on my kitchen counter top. Kids LOVE doing this with you so feel free to put them to work with their clean, little hands. They are naturals, likely having made play-doh snakes since before they could use complete sentences.
With three long snakes of dough, approximately 1 and a half inches thick and nearly two feet long, now it's time to braid them. Alternating side, crossing one outside piece over the inside piece of dough, braid them until you get to the end. Gather the ends together and pinch the dough to a sealed end, tucking it under. Go back to the top and braid this starting point backwards - outside under inside - and pinch this end closed in the same way.
Lay this long braid, centered to fit, on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Completely cover with that tea towel or cloth again, set in a warm place and let it rise until it is nearly doubled in size. This will take 45 minutes to an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the bread has finished rising, remove the cover and place it on the center rack in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. While it bakes, combine 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Stir and set aside. I like to put it in a heavy glass bowl or mug and leave it on top of the stove. It melts and combines to a nice syrup. When the bread is done, it should be golden top.
Remove from the oven to a wire rack to cool. Immediately brush the top with the sugar/lemon glaze. It will sizzle as you brush it. The sound - along with the sight and smell of this fresh baked bread - is hard to resist. But resist it! This bread needs to sit until it is at least cool enough to handle. Cutting it or pulling it apart too early will release a rush of steam, especially dangerous to your junior bakers. Be warned...
Enjoy it warm - not hot - from the oven plain. So good! Or cooled, sliced with just butter. It's so delightful!
Try it out. I will post the Bread Maker version too... Gotta run a girl to swimming now.
I was in search of more than just an everyday, ordinary carb-high. Chips would NOT do. I wanted memories and meaning and depth. So, I pulled out an old recipe and baked a favorite bread from my childhood. Pulla : sometimes known as Finn bun or Finnish coffee bread.
I just cut this batch of dough in half after making the 3 dough snakes - giving me 6 shorter snakes - shaped them into two separate round braids, and put them in cake pans lined with parchment. It was a whole new look. There was an extra feel-good bonus to it too. It produced one bread to keep and one to give away. Sharing is good medicine for the blue soul in winter, too. Even better than carbs.
Ooo, and one final hybrid idea for this recipe. This dough makes an incredible cinnamon roll base too! Check it out...
Bread is inexpensive when you make it yourself and stock the ingredients in your fridge (like a jar of yeast, butter, milk, eggs) and pantry (bread flour, sugar, decorator sugars, and ground or whole spices like cinnamon and cardamom from East-Indian markets like Bombay Grocers in Ann Arbor). If you've never made bread before, give this one a try and invite your kids along for your baking adventure.
Ann's Favorite Pulla Recipe- from a fellow Northern Ontario Finn
In a large mixing bowl, combine these dry ingredients.
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups bread flour - set aside another cup of flour as well for working the dough
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
Mix to spread the spice throughout. Set aside.
In a smaller bowl, combine these wet ingredients. These need to be warm to activate the yeast. Too cool, the yeast won't work. Too hot, the yeast will be killed.
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/3 cup warm milk
1 egg, lightly beaten (best at room temperature so it doesn't cool off your other liquids)
Mix lightly.
With clean hands (rings off, please) continue to mix the dough as it begins to separate from the side of the bowl. Add some of the reserved flour as needed, a Tablespoon at a time to achieve this.
Now add the final ingredient.
1/3 cup softened butter.
This will be greasy and sticky at first but you will feel this dough start to come together as you work it in your hands, squeezing it to spread the butter throughout.
Knead - a process of folding over the dough and pushing with the heel of your hand - the dough. Knead it well enough to spread the butter well and work the dough so it no longer feels sticky, gluey, or greasy. Add a bit of flour as needed to get the feel of a smooth, elastic dough which easily forms a ball in the center of bowl, fully separated from the sides.
There are great tips on kneading in cookbooks and on-line but the best way to know how this works is to get your hands in there and do it. Get the feel of the dough as it changes. I posted a short video of my one-handed kneading of this dough so you can see the look of the dough as it gets to that last stage where it's ready to be set aside to rise. View it on my annarbor.com blog.
Cover the bowl with a dish towel or other clean cloth. Set in a warm, draft-free area and let it rise for just 10 minutes. Lightly spread flour on a clean surface - a large bread board, butcher block, table or counter top will do. Remove the dough from the bowl and, with a sharp knife, cut the dough into three equal parts. This doesn't have to be perfect division. More or less is good enough.
Roll these dough segments into long snakes of dough of approximately equal length. I do this on my kitchen counter top. Kids LOVE doing this with you so feel free to put them to work with their clean, little hands. They are naturals, likely having made play-doh snakes since before they could use complete sentences.
Lay this long braid, centered to fit, on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Completely cover with that tea towel or cloth again, set in a warm place and let it rise until it is nearly doubled in size. This will take 45 minutes to an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. When the bread has finished rising, remove the cover and place it on the center rack in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes. While it bakes, combine 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Stir and set aside. I like to put it in a heavy glass bowl or mug and leave it on top of the stove. It melts and combines to a nice syrup. When the bread is done, it should be golden top.
Enjoy it warm - not hot - from the oven plain. So good! Or cooled, sliced with just butter. It's so delightful!
Try it out. I will post the Bread Maker version too... Gotta run a girl to swimming now.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
"No friends or family members were harmed during this episode of EXTREME volunteerism."
This week I rather impulsively entered into what could be seen as some extreme volunteering. It made for quite a challenging week demanding high energy, uber-organizational hutzpah, good friends coming to the rescue and more.
Our little jewel of an elementary school - Pittsfield Elementary - took on the daunting task of sorting a mountain of items donated to the A2 PTO Thrift Shop over the waning months of 2009. And all because I decided that we could, should, would take on the challenge. An event like this had not been done before but I figured, how hard can it be? Impulsive or not, I signed us up officially at their board meeting last Thursday night to do a major pilot event - a multi-donation drive "sort" - of somewhere between 500 and 700 bags and boxes full of donated, gently-used "stuff".
Well, what's done is done. And there was nothing left to do but get it done. I already had a sense of who was available to help with this thanks to an earlier feeler on what day of the week works best so I sent out another call to the my Pittsfield "peeps", as my teenager is a fond of calling them. My husband's term for us is the "PTO Mafia". It's a term of great respect and betrays, perhaps, just a slight trace of fear. He claims that the term fits us well: we gather over food, wine, and together we plan things... loudly. Then, we execute our plans - with precision, gusto and flair. Yes, I'd say there's a little fear there.
The gang, as always, came through - and how! I had a crew of 12 volunteers lined up for a variety of shifts to help throughout the school day. Mums and dads volunteered on their one day off, before their job started, after their job ended, or on their noon-hours. And all of us, our first jobs being parents, volunteered while our kids were in school for the day. It was a 9-to-3:30 day for us and we got as many hours out of it as we could.
Unfortunately, one day was NOT enough to dig ourselves out from under all that stuff. It was a veritable mountain, overwhelming us when we first arrived. The room was full of piles upon piles of bags and boxes. A warehouse of chaos. Where to start was the question looming front and center. Whether we'd finish was the one lingering in the back of all of our minds. But with another full day with a handful of die-hards (you know who you are) and couple of drop-ins from other schools, our trusty band of rag-tag volunteers got the job under control. This morning, four of us arrived for a quick sprint to the finish and, in no time, the job was done. Mission accomplished. Order established. We did it.
Well, what's done is done. And there was nothing left to do but get it done. I already had a sense of who was available to help with this thanks to an earlier feeler on what day of the week works best so I sent out another call to the my Pittsfield "peeps", as my teenager is a fond of calling them. My husband's term for us is the "PTO Mafia". It's a term of great respect and betrays, perhaps, just a slight trace of fear. He claims that the term fits us well: we gather over food, wine, and together we plan things... loudly. Then, we execute our plans - with precision, gusto and flair. Yes, I'd say there's a little fear there.
The gang, as always, came through - and how! I had a crew of 12 volunteers lined up for a variety of shifts to help throughout the school day. Mums and dads volunteered on their one day off, before their job started, after their job ended, or on their noon-hours. And all of us, our first jobs being parents, volunteered while our kids were in school for the day. It was a 9-to-3:30 day for us and we got as many hours out of it as we could.
Unfortunately, one day was NOT enough to dig ourselves out from under all that stuff. It was a veritable mountain, overwhelming us when we first arrived. The room was full of piles upon piles of bags and boxes. A warehouse of chaos. Where to start was the question looming front and center. Whether we'd finish was the one lingering in the back of all of our minds. But with another full day with a handful of die-hards (you know who you are) and couple of drop-ins from other schools, our trusty band of rag-tag volunteers got the job under control. This morning, four of us arrived for a quick sprint to the finish and, in no time, the job was done. Mission accomplished. Order established. We did it.
It was all "sorted" by good friends, good neighbors - great community. Well done all!
My hope now is that we did as right by the Thrift with this "sort" as they have done by us over the late fall and winter with the fundraising opportunities for our PTO. We shall see what they think of our work.
In the meantime, we all survived. Me, my friends and fellow volunteers, even my family. Check out my post-sort, last-minute meals on annarbor.com to find out just how well they survived my extreme volunteer commitments this week... They were far from suffering.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
New post on annarbor.com, more A2 PTO Thrift Shop quests
Here is my annarbor.com blog on the budget-stretching I attempted yesterday chez le Thrift... I am still on the hunt for the French casserole there. Anybody who would pay full price for a new one of these is truly just ill. Sorry, but they are. These pots are gorgeous but get serious. I can only cook with the pot. I can't eat it or live in it. So, somebody's hand-me-down Le Creuset will suit me very nicely. And if I saw an authentic copper cataplana there too, I would probably snap it up in a heartbeat and hang it on the kitchen wall. No storage space? Stick a hook in the wall and hang it up.
I'm starting to think that this may just turn into the continuing adventures of Ann at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop. It really is a near-perfect environment. Community based, helping the schools, great people. Constantly changing inventory, low prices, clean and upbeat atmosphere.
When I was in yesterday and shopped after volunteering, I was enjoying the music they were playing to such an extent, I was often singing (quietly) aloud as I browsed. It was not something I own or would buy but it was Elvis. How could I not be singing along. They could stream their musical selections and it would make great AOR on-line. Lots of classics appealing to those of a similar vintage to mine. There is always something good on the stereo to keep me humming. Next time you are into the shop, listen while you look. I wonder if they have the playlist on the Facebook group page? Hmmm...
Tonight, I stretch that January paycheque (which is actually from December 23rd) even further. We will have 15-bean and vegetable soup for dinner. It's not my usual vegetarian variety - I made chicken stock on Monday night to use in another soup. I originally wanted to make an Italian egg-drop soup with it. Stracciatella - so simple, so good. Never got around to that though so I had to use it up here.
I soaked 2 cups of 15-bean variety in cold water overnight in my slow cooker on Monday. Then drained and cooked them in fresh water in the slow cooker while out on Tuesday. I cooked up the soup on Tuesday night on the stove top while my lasagne was baking in the oven. I made a quickie version of the classic Italian comfort food post-swim lessons with my Barilla no-boil noodles, ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses with eggs and leftover Italian meat sauce from the weekend.
I like almost everything better if it has sat overnight in the fridge - it all just tastes more complete. Today, the soup is ready to go because it was made ahead - also good for a busy activities night when one of them came home early, claiming a sick stomach. Yes, my life is glamorous.
Thankfully, I am just heating up this dinner to serve with salad and some bread. The soup itself, aside from the soaked, cooked 15-bean mix, consists of my homemade stock (made with the bones and unused meat from a roast chicken, 1 T of salt, 1 tsp whole peppercorns and covered in cold water to cook overnight in the slow cooker/crock pot), chopped potato, some long-in-the-tooth grape tomatoes, frozen chopped spinach along with the basic onion and celery starter.
I threw in the last of our chicken gravy from our Sunday dinner too. It makes of a tasty addition but, alas, it's a meaty addition since it is the giblet and wine gravy that my kids love. I will likely throw in some green beans just before serving but I'm not sure the soup needs it. Green beans are my teenager's favorite vegetable so it would be to make her happier coming in the door after along day. But it looks - and tastes - just right as it is.
Hope you enjoy your dinner too! Tomorrow, the left-over lasagne with left-over soup as a starter. Another non-cooking day to look forward to.
I'm starting to think that this may just turn into the continuing adventures of Ann at the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop. It really is a near-perfect environment. Community based, helping the schools, great people. Constantly changing inventory, low prices, clean and upbeat atmosphere.
When I was in yesterday and shopped after volunteering, I was enjoying the music they were playing to such an extent, I was often singing (quietly) aloud as I browsed. It was not something I own or would buy but it was Elvis. How could I not be singing along. They could stream their musical selections and it would make great AOR on-line. Lots of classics appealing to those of a similar vintage to mine. There is always something good on the stereo to keep me humming. Next time you are into the shop, listen while you look. I wonder if they have the playlist on the Facebook group page? Hmmm...
I soaked 2 cups of 15-bean variety in cold water overnight in my slow cooker on Monday. Then drained and cooked them in fresh water in the slow cooker while out on Tuesday. I cooked up the soup on Tuesday night on the stove top while my lasagne was baking in the oven. I made a quickie version of the classic Italian comfort food post-swim lessons with my Barilla no-boil noodles, ricotta, parmesan and mozzarella cheeses with eggs and leftover Italian meat sauce from the weekend.
I like almost everything better if it has sat overnight in the fridge - it all just tastes more complete. Today, the soup is ready to go because it was made ahead - also good for a busy activities night when one of them came home early, claiming a sick stomach. Yes, my life is glamorous.
Thankfully, I am just heating up this dinner to serve with salad and some bread. The soup itself, aside from the soaked, cooked 15-bean mix, consists of my homemade stock (made with the bones and unused meat from a roast chicken, 1 T of salt, 1 tsp whole peppercorns and covered in cold water to cook overnight in the slow cooker/crock pot), chopped potato, some long-in-the-tooth grape tomatoes, frozen chopped spinach along with the basic onion and celery starter.
I threw in the last of our chicken gravy from our Sunday dinner too. It makes of a tasty addition but, alas, it's a meaty addition since it is the giblet and wine gravy that my kids love. I will likely throw in some green beans just before serving but I'm not sure the soup needs it. Green beans are my teenager's favorite vegetable so it would be to make her happier coming in the door after along day. But it looks - and tastes - just right as it is.
Hope you enjoy your dinner too! Tomorrow, the left-over lasagne with left-over soup as a starter. Another non-cooking day to look forward to.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
My Friday morning benefits package
My job may not pay anything, but the benefits have always been second to none.
Somebody made them again this morning... Are they reading this blog? Whatever the reason, it was a yummy brunch for mummy before the gang all went to Vet's Park to skate for a couple of hours.
Tonight, we celebrate the first birthday of a special little girl. Big shout out to little Immy! Happy first birthday!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Prepping a DIY crepe lunch. Cause I'm a "bad, bad mummy"
My daughter was singing today at school. She was singing in honor of me, in fact.
This particular custom-reworked classic is sung to the tune of The Ballad of Buster Baxter by Art Garfunkle - you can hear it at around 2:40 on this YouTube clip. It's from an episode of Arthur on PBS Kids from long, long ago when we regularly watched such things.
It goes like this. "She's a bad, bad mummy. A bad, bad mummy. Life isn't funny when you gotta bad, bad mummy." Yes, it's about me. And, yes, this gets sung whenever I mess up. It's a familiar tune to my children - it used to be sung quite often. I must be doing a better job. I hadn't heard it for a while.
Today, however, was one of those days when the song could be heard. It was heard at school. At her table. In the lunchroom. Oh, the shame of it all.
Seems I forgot to pack a hot lunch in a thermos for my 10 year-old so she very nearly went without. Gasp! And when I said I would bring it before the noon hour, I didn't come through with it. Faint! But at the 11th hour - actually, with 6 minutes left in the lunch period - this same mummy raced home, quickly scrambled up some eggs, popped out some whole wheat toast and poured out some frozen peas (she loves em) to go with it. Today, it really paid off to live so darn close to the school!
In order to ensure this doesn't happen again tomorrow, E and I decided to plan ahead tonight. Everyone needs to do this to be successful, we agreed. Mothers, students, teachers, business owners, pilots... you get the picture. It became a life lesson in preparedness.
And a delicious one, at that. E decided to make crepes for her lunch. She will cook them on her own in the morning but made the batter "to order" tonight. It's a solo job. With floor space that's around 6 ft x 6 ft, there's only room for one cook at a time in this tiny kitchen.
After showering up for the night, E wrapped up her hair and went to work. She bases her crepes on a recipe found on page 134 of a classic Canadian small-town cookbook Company's Coming by Jean Pare.
E's recipe included:
4 eggs
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tsp of vanilla (E does it "to taste")
a dash of salt
sugar "to taste". In her case, it's usually 1 tsp per egg used. This made for 4 tsp tonight.
2 cups of "premium all-purpose" flour.
As we are from Canada, we can't really deal with US all-purpose. We just like the familiarity of dealing with flour from harder wheat. It's what we are used to. It's predictable.
I watched her beat the eggs first with a fork. Then she measured out the milk, water, and vanilla. All were combined with the eggs and beaten again with a large whisk. She added salt, sugar and finally combined it all with the flour. A quick beating left a loose and slightly lumpy batter which went into the fridge to sit overnight.
She will use a soup ladle in the morning to scoop out batter for the crepes she cooks on a non-stick pan lightly wiped with canola oil or butter. She has been cooking these up since she was 7 so she pretty much knows how to get them just right in the pan.
This will be her Friday lunch - and probably breakfast too. This prep will hopefully mean she will be singing a very different tune tomorrow.
With the crepe batter stowed safely in the fridge until morning, there still remained the issue of a bed-time snack for the girls. With the thought of those sweet crepes on her mind, once again E took the initiative and made herself something. Something a little out of the ordinary.
Now, I love that my kids are independent and comfortable in the kitchen. They fix themselves a snack before bed each night freeing me up to do something else while I enjoy my evening coffee. Tonight, this is how it went. They were fixing snack and I was plunking away on the computer, entering the piece on the crepes. I was feeling I had redeemed myself somewhat in my daughter's eyes tonight.
Then, as the kettle whistled it's readiness for my French press decaf 45 minutes ago, I walked into the kitchen and saw this on her plate. And there had been four others like these - all of them covered in whipped cream - already eaten. Such bed-time snack decadence!
I'm not feeling too badly for her anymore but not really sure how to score this one for myself either. I do know that she was hardly suffering by the end of the day.
I think I can close this one out tonight with a fairly clear conscience. And with The Ballad of Buster Baxter still ringing in my head.
This particular custom-reworked classic is sung to the tune of The Ballad of Buster Baxter by Art Garfunkle - you can hear it at around 2:40 on this YouTube clip. It's from an episode of Arthur on PBS Kids from long, long ago when we regularly watched such things.
It goes like this. "She's a bad, bad mummy. A bad, bad mummy. Life isn't funny when you gotta bad, bad mummy." Yes, it's about me. And, yes, this gets sung whenever I mess up. It's a familiar tune to my children - it used to be sung quite often. I must be doing a better job. I hadn't heard it for a while.
Today, however, was one of those days when the song could be heard. It was heard at school. At her table. In the lunchroom. Oh, the shame of it all.
Seems I forgot to pack a hot lunch in a thermos for my 10 year-old so she very nearly went without. Gasp! And when I said I would bring it before the noon hour, I didn't come through with it. Faint! But at the 11th hour - actually, with 6 minutes left in the lunch period - this same mummy raced home, quickly scrambled up some eggs, popped out some whole wheat toast and poured out some frozen peas (she loves em) to go with it. Today, it really paid off to live so darn close to the school!
In order to ensure this doesn't happen again tomorrow, E and I decided to plan ahead tonight. Everyone needs to do this to be successful, we agreed. Mothers, students, teachers, business owners, pilots... you get the picture. It became a life lesson in preparedness.
And a delicious one, at that. E decided to make crepes for her lunch. She will cook them on her own in the morning but made the batter "to order" tonight. It's a solo job. With floor space that's around 6 ft x 6 ft, there's only room for one cook at a time in this tiny kitchen.
After showering up for the night, E wrapped up her hair and went to work. She bases her crepes on a recipe found on page 134 of a classic Canadian small-town cookbook Company's Coming by Jean Pare.
4 eggs
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tsp of vanilla (E does it "to taste")
a dash of salt
sugar "to taste". In her case, it's usually 1 tsp per egg used. This made for 4 tsp tonight.
2 cups of "premium all-purpose" flour.
As we are from Canada, we can't really deal with US all-purpose. We just like the familiarity of dealing with flour from harder wheat. It's what we are used to. It's predictable.
She will use a soup ladle in the morning to scoop out batter for the crepes she cooks on a non-stick pan lightly wiped with canola oil or butter. She has been cooking these up since she was 7 so she pretty much knows how to get them just right in the pan.
With the crepe batter stowed safely in the fridge until morning, there still remained the issue of a bed-time snack for the girls. With the thought of those sweet crepes on her mind, once again E took the initiative and made herself something. Something a little out of the ordinary.
Now, I love that my kids are independent and comfortable in the kitchen. They fix themselves a snack before bed each night freeing me up to do something else while I enjoy my evening coffee. Tonight, this is how it went. They were fixing snack and I was plunking away on the computer, entering the piece on the crepes. I was feeling I had redeemed myself somewhat in my daughter's eyes tonight.
Then, as the kettle whistled it's readiness for my French press decaf 45 minutes ago, I walked into the kitchen and saw this on her plate. And there had been four others like these - all of them covered in whipped cream - already eaten. Such bed-time snack decadence!
I'm not feeling too badly for her anymore but not really sure how to score this one for myself either. I do know that she was hardly suffering by the end of the day.
I think I can close this one out tonight with a fairly clear conscience. And with The Ballad of Buster Baxter still ringing in my head.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The blogs: "desperate" in the Year of the Tiger
I just posted a new item to the local "paper" on their website - a follow-up to a Facebook post about my desperation at Bed Bath and Beyond on Monday. Check it out with this link to annarbor.com. I have a link to the general blog on the sidebar too. I'm enjoying blogging for them and hope it won't end now that the holidays are "officially" over and all the trees sit at the curb, week-long cast-offs now.
My tree is still up and will probably be until the end of January, just around the time of Chinese New Year. We will mark it again this year by going out for special feast with friends at Great Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant just around the corner and down the road from us on Carpenter Road. We are regulars there - my kids and I especially love it. The girls have a 2010 wall-scroll calendar from them featuring the Chinese zodiac. This year will be the Year of the Tiger.
If I am going to pay for a meal out, it has to be fresh, delicious and something I can't make myself without enormous effort, expense and timely trial-and-error. Dim sum - here are some on-line opinions of Great Lake's spread - is one of those few meals which fit the bill perfectly. And it's something I'm often quite desperate for in the middle of the day, ironically. Much more so than those appliances. Fortunately, many of our friends love dim sum too. I think it's one of those meals best shared with a group. Very social. Very delicious.
If I am going to pay for a meal out, it has to be fresh, delicious and something I can't make myself without enormous effort, expense and timely trial-and-error. Dim sum - here are some on-line opinions of Great Lake's spread - is one of those few meals which fit the bill perfectly. And it's something I'm often quite desperate for in the middle of the day, ironically. Much more so than those appliances. Fortunately, many of our friends love dim sum too. I think it's one of those meals best shared with a group. Very social. Very delicious.
Monday, January 11, 2010
I l-o-v-e the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop!
It's true. This year I revived a love affair with something I have long been passionately involved with in city after city after city. Obsessively, compulsively, over the course of my entire adult life, I have loved... the Thrift.
And so, beginning this fall, it's been the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop which has me under it's spell. It's the place to be for deal-hunters and do-gooders of all kinds - especially those who support Ann Arbor Public Schools. You'll find me there quite often.
There are lots of reasons for me to love the Thrift: the great deals of resale shopping; the turnover and variety of items; the lovely clean store (I'm picky about this so I also like to volunteer there to help keep it that way); and my perfect fit with their "more-with-less" philosophy. The funding support for enrichment earned over this fall and early winter will be a great shot in the arm for my neighborhood elementary school. I want to do more fundraising with them for our schools. And just when I think it can't get better, it does...
Not only have my kids schools PTO and PTSO been raising money and receiving grants from the Thrift but there was EXTRA love at the end of 2009. Each received a kind of bonus cheque (yes, I'm Canadian and this is how I spell it). This is a wonderful end-of-the-year gift to each to be used to benefit kids with enrichment opportunities. And it's not just my schools getting these - it's your AAPS schools too if you participate in fundraising activities with this great organization. Does your school have an Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop rep? If not, now is a great time to start. Check out their website, contact the shop, and sign up to be the rep for your school. It takes as much or as little time and effort as you have to offer. And I am really enjoying organizing the group activities and earning funds for my kids schools. It couldn't be more rewarding all the way around.
So, a big thank you to the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop for their incredible support of AAPS enrichment! Ask your PTO or PTSO about this - and say thanks to the A2 PTO Thrift Shop too.
And so, beginning this fall, it's been the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop which has me under it's spell. It's the place to be for deal-hunters and do-gooders of all kinds - especially those who support Ann Arbor Public Schools. You'll find me there quite often.
There are lots of reasons for me to love the Thrift: the great deals of resale shopping; the turnover and variety of items; the lovely clean store (I'm picky about this so I also like to volunteer there to help keep it that way); and my perfect fit with their "more-with-less" philosophy. The funding support for enrichment earned over this fall and early winter will be a great shot in the arm for my neighborhood elementary school. I want to do more fundraising with them for our schools. And just when I think it can't get better, it does...
Not only have my kids schools PTO and PTSO been raising money and receiving grants from the Thrift but there was EXTRA love at the end of 2009. Each received a kind of bonus cheque (yes, I'm Canadian and this is how I spell it). This is a wonderful end-of-the-year gift to each to be used to benefit kids with enrichment opportunities. And it's not just my schools getting these - it's your AAPS schools too if you participate in fundraising activities with this great organization. Does your school have an Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop rep? If not, now is a great time to start. Check out their website, contact the shop, and sign up to be the rep for your school. It takes as much or as little time and effort as you have to offer. And I am really enjoying organizing the group activities and earning funds for my kids schools. It couldn't be more rewarding all the way around.
So, a big thank you to the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop for their incredible support of AAPS enrichment! Ask your PTO or PTSO about this - and say thanks to the A2 PTO Thrift Shop too.
Some Scarlett Fundraising - Dining for Dollar$
With the budget crunch in the district, I'm extra aware of all variety of fundraising activities for the schools. Here's something that caught my eye - sent by Natalie. And I saw a pretty good review on Yelp.com for it too.
It's a restaurant night at Noodles and Co. at Arborland on Wednesday, January 13th from 2 to 9 pm. Mention Scarlett Middle School when you dine-in or take out between those times and Noodles and Co. will give 25% of sales to help fund enrichment at that school. Their number is 743-477-5700.
Great idea to support the schools! Thank you, Natalie.
It's a restaurant night at Noodles and Co. at Arborland on Wednesday, January 13th from 2 to 9 pm. Mention Scarlett Middle School when you dine-in or take out between those times and Noodles and Co. will give 25% of sales to help fund enrichment at that school. Their number is 743-477-5700.
Great idea to support the schools! Thank you, Natalie.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Dining like kings!
Fantastic meal tonight - so worth the wait! My family gobbled it up. We certainly dined like kings but didn't have to spend like them. More like French peasants. And that works for me. Later this week, it's coq au vin!
A tasty, thrifty dinner inspired by friends - real, cinematic, and legendary
I made boeuf bourguignon from Julia Child's recipe last night, in the late evening.
Over the holidays we were invited to dinner by a friend who made an entire French meal inspired by the grande dame of American cooks, Julia Child. Eileen and her daughter had been to see the movie Julie & Julia. My girls and I had taken her daughter KT with us when it first came out and we all left the theatre that day actually sensing, smelling the boeuf bourguignon prepared in the film.
It was such a wonderful thing to experience with the kids. It turned my little one completely onto more cooking - she's the one who goes to her friends' house for a sleepover and makes them crepes from memory, tasting and guessing at the adjustment of ingredients. That's my girl!
Eileen's meal was, as always, spectacular and it left the girls and I wanting more. Particularly more boeuf!
I picked the stewing beef up Friday for a great price at Whole Foods and that was it. Off and running. The only thing I didn't have to make it was a chunk of bacon (I have used salt pork before but I was planning to follow Madame's recipe so it had to be bacon) and the mushrooms.
Then, to the cooking. So tempting, so torturous for my family. They went out to a UofM gymnastics meet with their dad and friends last night and came home to find mother searing beef in bacon fat. Can you imagine?
Then they tried to watch Night At The Museum 2 as I finished cooking the dish and put my pan in the oven to a low simmer for 3 hours. Up for snacks every 10 minutes. The teenager at two bowls of salad, a large turkey sandwich on Italian loaf. The snacking went on and on and on.
All went to bed. All snacked again before going to bed. One snacked on a large helping of leftover mashed potatoes! They were hungry all night and still likely dreamed of beef. Clearly, there are no vegetarians in our house.
Finally, it was done. I pulled it out - still just barely bubbling - at just before 1 am, I think. I let it sit to cool on top of the stove for a bit and started to clean up the kitchen. With all that done and dishwasher loaded and running, the pan was still a bit warm yet so to the laundry I turned for a spell. And so I put the glorious meal - tasting no more than a tiny, tender morsel - into the fridge. It will be heated up slowly today for dinner and served with some herb steamed yukon golds, sauteed carrots and French green beans from Whole Foods. Salad with vinaigrette to follow.
It's just stew but with incredible French flair. C'est magnifique!
Over the holidays we were invited to dinner by a friend who made an entire French meal inspired by the grande dame of American cooks, Julia Child. Eileen and her daughter had been to see the movie Julie & Julia. My girls and I had taken her daughter KT with us when it first came out and we all left the theatre that day actually sensing, smelling the boeuf bourguignon prepared in the film.
It was such a wonderful thing to experience with the kids. It turned my little one completely onto more cooking - she's the one who goes to her friends' house for a sleepover and makes them crepes from memory, tasting and guessing at the adjustment of ingredients. That's my girl!
Eileen's meal was, as always, spectacular and it left the girls and I wanting more. Particularly more boeuf!
Then, to the cooking. So tempting, so torturous for my family. They went out to a UofM gymnastics meet with their dad and friends last night and came home to find mother searing beef in bacon fat. Can you imagine?
Then they tried to watch Night At The Museum 2 as I finished cooking the dish and put my pan in the oven to a low simmer for 3 hours. Up for snacks every 10 minutes. The teenager at two bowls of salad, a large turkey sandwich on Italian loaf. The snacking went on and on and on.
All went to bed. All snacked again before going to bed. One snacked on a large helping of leftover mashed potatoes! They were hungry all night and still likely dreamed of beef. Clearly, there are no vegetarians in our house.
Finally, it was done. I pulled it out - still just barely bubbling - at just before 1 am, I think. I let it sit to cool on top of the stove for a bit and started to clean up the kitchen. With all that done and dishwasher loaded and running, the pan was still a bit warm yet so to the laundry I turned for a spell. And so I put the glorious meal - tasting no more than a tiny, tender morsel - into the fridge. It will be heated up slowly today for dinner and served with some herb steamed yukon golds, sauteed carrots and French green beans from Whole Foods. Salad with vinaigrette to follow.
It's just stew but with incredible French flair. C'est magnifique!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Maiden Voyage
The new year and a new blog! Testing it out. For color and size. Just to see what it might look like... Big thanks to Orsi for all her help.
Next, it's on to the website. I need the kids help for that. Luckily, my tech crew works for food and clean laundry. Bargain!
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