Notes from the kitchen

After spending months avoiding it like the plague, I'm finally able to venture back into one my favorite rooms - the kitchen. Mostly I'm getting back into the routine of menu planning, cooking and culturing but I have also learned a few things:

1) Equipment does make a difference.

I have always been frustrated with my chopping skills. I seem to do it just like they do on tv but mine end us a mashy mess. I kept thinking I would improve over time but didn't really seem to. But then this Christmas we were given a few nice knives. Wow does that make a difference. I'm a chopping fool now. And my self esteem is through the roof!

Also, my bread has improved since the move. I couldn't really figure it out until I made granola. When I first posted my recipe, it used to take about 2 hours to be done, then at my last place I noticed it was down to an hour and a half. This time I stirred it at about 40 minutes and noticed it was pretty close to being done. I then promptly forgot about it and by an hour it was burnt! Apparently this oven is a lot stronger than my last ones. (Or more accurately, my old oven was weak and on it's last leg). I'm excited about my more functional oven as it means more consistent cook times and a nicer crust on my bread, as long as I remember to adjust my recipes accordingly.

2) Pregnancy is not good for cultures.

Both my yogurt and water kefir cultures did not survive the first trimester. I had half of my dried yogurt culture saved so I didn't think it would be a problem to start that up again but it must have been too old. When I try to culture it, all I got was a yogurt smelling milk. It's not totally dead but I don't think it is strong enough to work.

I was worried about my kefir grains. Once they were going well, I had tried drying some of my set just in case I ever killed them accidentally but wasn't really sure of my technique. Last week I tried to revive them. I thought they were working as they seemed to plump up. But after 48 hrs the water was still just sugar water with a layer of kefir on the bottom.

Overall it isn't a big deal. I still have all the supplies and I am comfortable with the routine so I'll think I'll buy new starters and make sure I show Craig how to do it before the baby comes. I've also learned a few tricks about keeping some frozen in case you ever have accidents and need to start over. Obviously that wouldn't have worked with moving but it will be a nice backup when the baby arrives. I could wait to restart them until this summer after we find a new routine but I miss them. I knew the theoretically benefits and liked the taste of both the yogurt and kefir so I kept it up but I didn't really think I noticed a change myself. But now after not being on them for a while, Craig and I both agree that we do feel better with more probiotics in us. And since Nigel will be getting his initial flora from me, I want to make sure I'm in good shape before the arrival.

3) Trying new recipes is fun, except when it's not.

I've been having a lot of fun trying new recipes. I've found some keepers like Owlhaven's Panda style orange chicken (totally delicious and while not completely healthy, I'm sure it is way better than the original) , Pioneer Women's Comfort Meatballs (If you don't have her cookbook, I feel sorry for you but luckily this one is also on her website), and Cheeseslave's Healthy Banana Bread (I though my banana bread recipe was good but these are even better, I think it's the maple syrup. I made a batch as muffins as a treat "for Craig" but then ate 5 before he got home.)

I've also had some misses, a pinto bean casserole with a crust that was more like a layer of asphalt than cornbread and a potato corn chowder that unfortunately made several meals worth. The worst thing about the misses is that they came during Craig's crazy work schedule time when I couldn't go to the store so we kept having to eat the leftovers. We didn't even have enough bread or I would have resorted to pb&js. Only the thought of starving children in Asia enabled me to get through it.

Books of February

One of the great joys of moving is access to a new library system with all of it's new books, especially now that I have time to enjoy them. I'm lucky here, the library itself is pretty good and is connected to two other good libraries. I'm a happy camper in the book department.

I still don't have as much time to read as I would like because we have three required reading books from Bradley classes in addition to the articles and student workbook homework but I think I did pretty good considering.

Last Child in the Woods. Richard Louv.

I had heard great things about this book but was disappointed. I agree with his initial premise of the problems that occur when children are isolated from nature but found myself wanting to disagree with him out of spite just because I disliked the second half of the book so much. It was disorganized and repetitive and I really couldn't figure out exactly what he thought the solution was. It was a little bit depressing actually since he didn't seem to think parents, schools or communities could do anything to fix the problem despite the fact that his main evidence in the books seems to be anecdotal evidence showing that they can.

Montessori from the Start. Paula Lillard and Lynn Jesson.

I didn't know much about Montessori until I ran across Sew Liberated a few weeks ago. Meg is a Montessori teacher and new mom and I loved so many of her ideas on how to incorporate Montessori ideas into a baby's environment. This was the one of the only books our library had on Montessori so I snatched it up. It was interesting. Before reading this book I thought about 1/3 of Montessori ideas were awesome , 1/3 were interesting but I didn't have any desire to do them myself and 1/3 were just bad. Those numbers still stand after reading it but what falls into each category is different. It was lacking in practical ideas, I strongly disliked the sections on sleep and the breastfeeding chapter was very outdated but having read some more from other sources, it seems like a lot of other Montessori followers feel the same way about this book and isn't necessarily a reflection on the method, just the book. Even with those negatives though, I did really like a lot of the principles in it, you will just need to be a good shifter to get to the good stuff. I am still very interested in learning more about Montessori and I'm sure I will be talking more about Montessori in the future but I don't think this was the best book to read to learn more about it.

Sane Women's Guide to Raising a Large Family. Mary Ostyn.

I love reading Mary's writing over at Owlhaven and after trying a recipe of hers that we loved, went looking for her cookbook. Alas, our library doesn't have it but it did have this so despite my not having a large family to raise right now, I gave it a try. I'm glad I did because it had a lot of really practical advice even for a new mom like me. I realized that while we may only have one of the way, I want to organize my life in a way that makes adding future children easier. Why set yourself up with a lifestyle that will work with one or two kids but not four or more if you know you want to end up with a lot of kids? I was very convicted about several things. She covers a lot of ground from deciding to expand your family (and what to do if you don't agree) to money, chores and even organized sports and explains how they manage things and why they do so while never sounding judgemental or like her way is the only way.

Ironically, she also mentioned some Montessori ideas but set up in a much more family friendly way. Montessori from the start would want you to teach your child to clean potatoes at a potato cleaning station complete with an expensive child sized table and chair, clear glass bowls and a child sized cleaning device to be used only for potato cleaning while Mary says to get those kids involved by putting them on a chair in front of the sink with a bunch of potatoes and a scrubber while you are cooking dinner. I like her idea better.

Thinking Women's Guide to a Better Birth.

Our Bradley instructor has a great library of books so I've been taking out another Birth/Baby book every week. This was one she recommend to start your birth plan research with and it's is good if you want more extensive information about specific procedures. It is organized into chapters by procedure so you can skip to what is relevant to your situation. It strongly leans towards natural birth though and is very "biased" in the sense that while she gives the pros and cons to each procedure, she also doesn't feel the need to validate options that she feels aren't worthwhile. She tells you where she is coming from at the beginning though and gives you the studies to back her point of view in each section and the quite large appendix though so I didn't have a problem with that.

The Birth Book. Dr. Sears.

A great overall birth book. I wish I had started with this but by the time I read it, I had already read so many others that a lot of it was old news. I think it would be a good gift for a newly pregnant women. Too many of the others books I read were a little intense and picture heavy for me, now I'm used to it and it doesn't' phase me but this would be a good way to ease yourself into the idea of giving birth.

The Vaccine Dilemma. Christine Murphy.

Another bradley teacher loan book. This one wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It's not a book about the pros and cons of vaccines or even a guide to avoiding or delaying vaccines but more of a compilation of essays talking about the immune system overall and how vaccines might impact it's development. The second half then focuses on how to handle childhood illnesses if you go the non-vaccine route. It was a bit weird at times but did offer an unique perspective. I also found the explanation of viruses and the immune system a bit simplified but then again, I've worked with viruses for a while so I have a bit more knowledge of them than the book's intended audience. It was interesting for what it was but I really want to read a book with more comprehensive information about individual vaccines and diseases before we make any decisions. I think I'll try to track down The Vaccine Book. I've heard its one of the few middle of the road books that just presents information without saying either all vaccines are bad or all vaccines are good.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Yes, I did read some fiction this month. It took me a little while to get into the story but once I did, I quite enjoyed myself. This is a murder mystery book for non-murder mystery type readers as it is really more about eleven year old chemistry-loving super sleuth Flavia de Luce living in 1950s England than the murder. Cleverly funny and delightful. I can't wait to get the sequel.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Mary Ann Shafer.

I was a bit annoyed when I noticed it was an epistolary novel since I tend to dislike them but within a few pages I had forgotten all about that. I felt like I could just go back to the 1940s and live on Guernsey Island and be right at home just like Julia did. I'm still amazed that it managed to be both light and fun while not diminishing the hardships of WWII but somehow it did.

Murder in Chinatown and Murder on Bank Street. Victoria Thompson.

I was finally able to continue with the gaslight series! Having read all the ones our old library had (and not in anything close to the correct order :-) I was quite excited to see there were more here although it took me a while to find them. Apparently our new library keeps it's mystery stories in a separate section but does not tell you that on the card catalog so I was very confused as to why it kept telling me that books were checked in but I could not find them anywhere. Now I know. I still have a few more to go before I've exhausted them but that makes me happy. One of my favorite easy reading series.

The Show Before "The Today Show"

That's what I was on on Friday morning. Throughout the Olympics, the local station did cute little segments in which they had people come on to demonstrate the sports of the Winter Games. Through my association with a group trying to form a curling club here, I got to participate in the curling demonstration. This required me to get up at 3:20 am and spend the pre-dawn hours on an outdoor ice rink. The things I do for the love of the game. But I got to meet some other curling enthusiasts and club participants. Here's a clip from our segment. You can see me at the end.

Post-Olympic Observations

1. Even though I was ready for them to be done, I always miss the Olympics for a day or two after they end. It's like at Christmas when I was young, and family members would come over, then they'd all leave. The competitions, the stories, and even the "Canadiana" (as Bob Costas called it) were a constant companion, and then they disappear. You'd think that at least the Today Show would hang around one more morning, to help ease us into the non-Olympic season, but no, they were back in New York (at least during the 3 minutes I saw of the show yesterday).
2. As far as I can tell, every sport got some prime-time attention from NBC - except curling. Now, I realize most people don't consider curling to be a barnburner, and I realize it was on the cable stations every day, but I still think the wider national audience should have been given a taste of the sport. It's no less boring than the bobsled, and that was all over prime time. On Friday, the last end of the mens' gold medal match started just as NBC's prime time coverage began. They could have cut in for the last few shots. If you didn't get to see any curling, here are some highlights from the womens' gold medal match.
   
3. NBC really rode Lindsey Vonn, even after she "only" won medals in two of her five events. I figured they would tone down the coverage of her a bit since she didn't medal in three events, but they did not. During the closing ceremonies, they cut a shot of her every five minutes. It was excessive, and it seemed like they wanted to prove that their pre-Games anointment of her as a star was correct.
   
4. I kind of like hockey, but I'm not a huge follower. I watched the mens' gold medal game, and I can see how it could help the sport among the general population. It made me want to go see an NHL game. I probably won't, but I at least considered it, and I'm sure many others will actually take that step.
5. Three of the last four Olympics (Vancouver, Beijing, and Athens) too place at or near a time when I moved to a new place. The Games are kind of associated in my mind with relocation. That being the case, though, I hope I'm still here when the London Games roll around.
   

MSM: A tree for Nigel

Once I saw this Fabric on the Walls Tutorial over at Infarrantly Creative, I knew I wanted to do that instead of buying a mural. That way I could get the perfect mix of whimsy and realism that we wanted.

She has pretty good directions but I documented our process anyway because, well, I'm a blogger and that's what we do.

I started by cutting out a tree shape with newspaper. I thought it was going to take me a long time to get something good but it wasn’t that hard at all. I taped it to the wall to see if I liked the size and I did.

Then I went fabric shopping and found this awesome mottled brown. I used 1.75 yards of the brown which may seem like a random amount but that was all Hobby Lobby had left. Luckily it turned out to be enough but I did have to divide the tree into three parts to get it all on there. The seams didn’t show later so it wasn’t a big deal.

I used the newspaper as the pattern but I did make a few changes. I noticed that the thinner branches looked a little less scary than some of my bigger branches. I wanted this to be a friendly tree not a creepy shadowy tree like you have nightmares over.

Then I used a little roller to wet the wall with liquid starch and stick my fabric up there. It doesn’t take much liquid starch at all to get a good stick. You might notice that I had to make some more changes here since the third branch ran into the vent. At this point I wasn’t sure if I liked it with the changes and was frustrated but Craig wisely suggested we take a break.

After a nap and a snack, my hormones had settled and I went back to finish it up. I freehanded some leaves from two different greens and put them in place while Craig wiped down the starch that had dried on the wall. It looked a lot happier with the leaves. After a few hours it was dry enough to move the changing table back into place and put a nail over one of the branches. I speared Hoot the beanie baby owl with a large safety pin and hung him on the nail. Ta-da! A tree for Nigel!

The total cost was about $11 which includes the three fabrics, liquid starch and roller. Not bad. This project was a lot easier than I was anticipating and I’m now in love with fabric “wallpapering.” When we move I can simply wet down the fabric with water and it will peel right off, ready to be reused if we want. This would be a super easy way to decorate a kids room with flowers, bugs, or even simple car or truck shapes.

Be sure to head over and visit Amanda at Putting Down Roots, home of the Make Something Monday!