Monday, September 5, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
"trumpet"
So Henry has reached the stage of trying to repeat what everyone says. Sometimes it comes out crystal clear, often it is not recognizable to the first utterance, and sounds like a foreign language. When we can understand him, we cheer like hyenas at a football game. Fools for a toddler.
We're sitting around the table, enjoying our butter chicken, and the conversation somehow turns to trumpets. I hear Henry murmuring off to my right, so I turn to him expectantly. "Did you say trumpet, Henry?" I asked, demonstrating interest in his budding speech. He smiles and nods, chewing all the while.
Me: Say trumpet, Henry.
H: Shut up.
Everyone else: (explosive laughter)
I was flabbergasted, hurt, and feeling guilty. Do I really say those words often enough that my baby can both repeat them and use them in context? I repeated my directions from before. Same response.
This time, I'm laughing. Obviously, this is good stuff, H is thinking. I need to just keep on saying it. I turned to Ryan, laughing and incredulous. His response was, shaking his head, "He said trumpet."
We're sitting around the table, enjoying our butter chicken, and the conversation somehow turns to trumpets. I hear Henry murmuring off to my right, so I turn to him expectantly. "Did you say trumpet, Henry?" I asked, demonstrating interest in his budding speech. He smiles and nods, chewing all the while.
Me: Say trumpet, Henry.
H: Shut up.
Everyone else: (explosive laughter)
I was flabbergasted, hurt, and feeling guilty. Do I really say those words often enough that my baby can both repeat them and use them in context? I repeated my directions from before. Same response.
This time, I'm laughing. Obviously, this is good stuff, H is thinking. I need to just keep on saying it. I turned to Ryan, laughing and incredulous. His response was, shaking his head, "He said trumpet."
Monday, August 29, 2011
Recipes For Steph
Alice's Burgers (makes four giant burgers - we usually make 6 out of this one). Double it if you have 4 or more in your family.
1 pound ground beef
1/4 t. allspice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/4 pepper
2 t. ketchup
2 t. Dijon
2 t. whole-grain mustard
Mix, then grill or otherwise cook (about six minutes per side if you make four really fat burgers). From Alice's Tea Cup, a place I'm pining to visit in NYC.
Six-Minute Chocolate Cake (Moosewood Restaurant Cooks @ home - another place in NY I want to chow down at). Takes six minutes to mix, not bake, unfortunately :0)
CAKE
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 cup veg. oil (we like olive for this one)
1 cup cold water or brewed coffee
2 t. vanilla extract
2. t. vinegar
GLAZE
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water, milk, or half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375. Sift together dry ingredients into an ungreased 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together oil, water and vanilla. Pour into pan and mix with whisk. When batter is smooth, add vinegar and stir quickly. Stir just until vinegar (forms pale swirls) is evenly distributed. Bake for 25-30 minutes and cool. Reset oven to 300 for glaze. Melt chocolate in oven for about 15 minutes. Stir hot liquid and vanilla into chocolate until smooth. Spoon glace over cooled cake. Refrigerate cake for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Quinoa Tabbouleh (not my favorite version of this one, but I can't find that recipe right now. Still very tasty, if you like these particular flavors) Serves 6 as a side dish.
1 c. quinoa
1/4 English cucumber
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
5 green onions
1 large bunch parsley
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. chili powder
Bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil. Rinse quinoa thoroughly several times. Drain and stir into boiling water with a pinch of salt. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 10-15 minutes. Quinoa should be transparent and water absorbed. Dice/ finely slice veggies into small pieces while quinoa is cooking. Whisk oil with lemon juice salt and chili powder. Add hot quinoa to oil mixture and toss well. Allow to cool to room temp, then add veggies. Chill for one hour before serving.
1 pound ground beef
1/4 t. allspice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 t. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/4 pepper
2 t. ketchup
2 t. Dijon
2 t. whole-grain mustard
Mix, then grill or otherwise cook (about six minutes per side if you make four really fat burgers). From Alice's Tea Cup, a place I'm pining to visit in NYC.
Six-Minute Chocolate Cake (Moosewood Restaurant Cooks @ home - another place in NY I want to chow down at). Takes six minutes to mix, not bake, unfortunately :0)
CAKE
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 cup veg. oil (we like olive for this one)
1 cup cold water or brewed coffee
2 t. vanilla extract
2. t. vinegar
GLAZE
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup hot water, milk, or half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375. Sift together dry ingredients into an ungreased 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together oil, water and vanilla. Pour into pan and mix with whisk. When batter is smooth, add vinegar and stir quickly. Stir just until vinegar (forms pale swirls) is evenly distributed. Bake for 25-30 minutes and cool. Reset oven to 300 for glaze. Melt chocolate in oven for about 15 minutes. Stir hot liquid and vanilla into chocolate until smooth. Spoon glace over cooled cake. Refrigerate cake for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Quinoa Tabbouleh (not my favorite version of this one, but I can't find that recipe right now. Still very tasty, if you like these particular flavors) Serves 6 as a side dish.
1 c. quinoa
1/4 English cucumber
2 tomatoes
1 green pepper
5 green onions
1 large bunch parsley
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. chili powder
Bring 1 3/4 cups water to a boil. Rinse quinoa thoroughly several times. Drain and stir into boiling water with a pinch of salt. Reduce heat and simmer, covered for 10-15 minutes. Quinoa should be transparent and water absorbed. Dice/ finely slice veggies into small pieces while quinoa is cooking. Whisk oil with lemon juice salt and chili powder. Add hot quinoa to oil mixture and toss well. Allow to cool to room temp, then add veggies. Chill for one hour before serving.
Another New Year
For the 3rd Annual "Back to School Dinner, etc" we had a merry old time, despite a bit of vomit here and there. The children chose the menu: Barbecued Hamburgers (recipe from Alice's Tea Cup cookbook - truly the best ones I've tried to date), Pink Lemonade, Quinoa Tabboleh (that one was my choice), Cucumber Vinegar Salad, and Six-Minute Chocolate Cake from Moosewood. Henry was rambunctious, chatty, and a sparse eater. Briar was attentive, annoyed by her brothers, and put off by the quinoa as per usual. Jacob was in constant motion, drank lemonade like a sieve, and asked question after question. Charlie snarfed his burger, made whacky faces, and created elaborate play scenarios for the stuffed cat and Egyptian Lego man he snuck to the table.
Our theme for 2011 is "Love is Spoken Here", a popular LDS Children's Songbook selection, and also one that our dear friend and honory family member Teju Shearer sang at B's baptism in July. We chose this song b/c we want to be more like those parents: praying consistently, comforting the fears of childhood, teaching the gospel clearly, and considering the priesthood with each decision we make. We hope that the children can take an attitude of tolerance, patience and love with them to school. Stressing the importance of the power of our speech can never be done enough. Words cannot be taken back once spoken, and they have the power to build up or burn. I firmly believe in a scripture I memorized as a missionary: D&C 121:43 "Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;" When love is spoken in our homes, at school, at work, etc., it doesn't mean we don't stand up for ourselves. It means we DO, but with compassion, tact, and over all, the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I need to improve on that - in a major way. I find I choose themes directly related to what I'm struggling with more than what the children might need. And, since I'm the mother, I think that's fitting. It all trickles down from the top, no?
More details and pics to come soon.
Our theme for 2011 is "Love is Spoken Here", a popular LDS Children's Songbook selection, and also one that our dear friend and honory family member Teju Shearer sang at B's baptism in July. We chose this song b/c we want to be more like those parents: praying consistently, comforting the fears of childhood, teaching the gospel clearly, and considering the priesthood with each decision we make. We hope that the children can take an attitude of tolerance, patience and love with them to school. Stressing the importance of the power of our speech can never be done enough. Words cannot be taken back once spoken, and they have the power to build up or burn. I firmly believe in a scripture I memorized as a missionary: D&C 121:43 "Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;" When love is spoken in our homes, at school, at work, etc., it doesn't mean we don't stand up for ourselves. It means we DO, but with compassion, tact, and over all, the guidance of the Holy Ghost. I need to improve on that - in a major way. I find I choose themes directly related to what I'm struggling with more than what the children might need. And, since I'm the mother, I think that's fitting. It all trickles down from the top, no?
More details and pics to come soon.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Which one?
Sunday, September 12, 2010
jack johnson love
my children LOVE jack johnson. they get giddy with excitement every time we play a CD. even little henny - he wiggles and jams like a dancing king. jacob said "jack johsnon and my daddy are my favorite singers - my dadddy knows how to sing, right mom?" they then took turns shouting their love for jack into the speakers. jacob's ode to jack went something like this: "i love you, my beaut - you are the heart of my ponyland." yeah, i totally feel that way too.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
feast
So, only almost two weeks late, a post about the second annual trumpet house back to school feast a la Amy & Nie. Sunday we had invited friends over to dine, unwittingly the day before school started. I realized my error after we'd finalized the plans. No matter, Monday was good enough since it was only the first day back. I was just excited to not do it alone this year. We did the feast and the theme: Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing...establish a house of learning." A bit long, but we are breaking each part up into segments and turning them into Family Home Evening lessons. The menu was ho-hum this year: Bedeviled eggs, Mexican Cumin Lime Slaw, Chicken on garden greens, Cool Cucumber Soup, Strawberries (that the children and I laboriously picked one afternoon at Broxburn Vegetable), Three Cheese Macaroni (a fancy way of saying I added two other cheeses to the box of Annie's), and Sea-salt caramel brownies with ice-cream (not ho-hum in the least, but leftovers from Sunday's dinner). The presentation looked gorgeous, but the chicken was weird. It was leftover from yesterday, marinated in lime and tamari, grilled, etc., and should have been delish, but it was kind of nasty. We lit our beeswax candles (they emit negative ions - read about why it's important!) and Ryan tried to bring in some flowers from our garden - I sent them right back out b/c they were crawling with ants. We haven't put the theme up yet - I'm a true slacker. Last year, I commissioned my dear friend Emily to paint our theme on a piece of fabric in her lovely script and planned on doing so again. We finally put that up in November, I think. I should have asked her mid-summer, so we'll probably use some vinyl lettering. I like the idea of having a lasting reminder that we can display each year as we collect them, so I've got to come up with something more permanent. I was frazzled, and a little grouchy. I may or may not have groused at my husband and threatened to leave the house and let him carry on solito.
Darling Nie...she succeeds in making it look so effortless and flawless...And Amy, no matter what you say to the contrary, most days I want to come live in your house. If we were neighbors, you'd see more of me than you'd care to. Like my feet up on your couch whilst reading a book, or sneaking a piece of your homemade bread. The blessings Ryan gave each child are beyond description. At one point, both of us were sobbing. I felt such an outpouring of love, love for my husband, my children, my Heavenly Father. We were wrapped in the spirit and touched by the divine, even if Charlie was clowning as per usual during each blessing. I alternately wrote furiously to record the words, and angrily signed to the distracted ones to straighten up and be reverent. A week and a half later, and I'm really only feeling the positive vibes. Hopefully my children will have positive etched into their hearts, too, despite all of the craziness that made up that day.
Darling Nie...she succeeds in making it look so effortless and flawless...And Amy, no matter what you say to the contrary, most days I want to come live in your house. If we were neighbors, you'd see more of me than you'd care to. Like my feet up on your couch whilst reading a book, or sneaking a piece of your homemade bread. The blessings Ryan gave each child are beyond description. At one point, both of us were sobbing. I felt such an outpouring of love, love for my husband, my children, my Heavenly Father. We were wrapped in the spirit and touched by the divine, even if Charlie was clowning as per usual during each blessing. I alternately wrote furiously to record the words, and angrily signed to the distracted ones to straighten up and be reverent. A week and a half later, and I'm really only feeling the positive vibes. Hopefully my children will have positive etched into their hearts, too, despite all of the craziness that made up that day.
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