Sourdough

Today, I baked my first loaf of sourdough bread from a starter.  I have loved using my bread machine to make bread with commercial yeast since before T and I were married.  But, this was my first successful attempt at bread without commercial yeast.  I converted a Herman sourdough starter (that I received from a friend) to just flour and water over the course of several weeks, and then I used it as my starter for the bread.  Then, with the help of a Splendid Table tutorial, something magical happened, and a yummy loaf actually emerged out of our oven. Now I know why the Lord’s Prayer includes a plea for “our daily bread.”  I was amazed and incredibly satisfied to bake a loaf for myself for the first time.  I certainly won’t ever claim artisan status, but when it comes to satisfying the demands of soup night, this should do the trick.

Happily Ever,

Queen B

Christmas Cookies with Miss Sara

What better way is there to spend the first day of Christmas break than making Christmas cookies?

This year, we continued our tradition of cookie baking, but we began what I hope will be a new tradition: cooking with our neighbor, Miss S.

Miss S invited us over for the afternoon.  We needed all the help (and space!) we could get.  This year, we made four types of cookies!  The kids were great helpers.  As with years past, one of the keys to our success was the fact that I made my dough the night before.  With the dough prepped and ready, we could set right into rolling, cutting, baking and decorating, which are all jobs that the children enjoy.

 This year, we had to introduce Buddy Bear to my rules of Christmas cookie baking.  

The rules haven't changed over the years, but I find that each year I have a new child to indoctrinate.

Rule #1:

Only Mom does the frosting.

Rule #2:

Only the kids do the decorating 

(unless they give Mom permission or ask for help).

Rule #3:

Have fun making the cookies.

(you would be surprised how difficult this can be at times!

Sometimes the decorations don't turn out they way one might want.  Sometimes one might lick fingers and have to wash hands AGAIN.  Sometimes one might have to be patient while Mom helps someone else.  This is a rule for good reason.)

With rules in place and after hours of hard work, we had a lot of bounty to show for our efforts.  The hardest part of the afternoon was just eating one cookie each!  We put the rest away for Christmas, just two days away.  The Advent wait will be worth it!

 Happily Ever,
Queen B

Christmas Cookies 2013

Who doesn't love a good Christmas cookie? 

Here in Happily Ever Johnson land, we love Christmas cookies.

We also love to make and decorate them.

For me, making Christmas cookies with multiple young children is an annual exercise in 

planning, patience and letting go.  I work hard to achieve all three for our brief cookie-making extravaganza each year.  Provided that I do, we all have a wonderful time. 

I have detailed my Christmas cookie philosophy  in previous posts.  I make (or buy) the dough ahead of time, we roll it out together and the kids get to cut out the cookies themselves.  We have some ground rules, but then I try to let the kids do most of the decorating on their own.  

This year, T showed us how to decorate the cookies with sugar sprinkles before baking. He admitted that he likes the unfrosted cookies the best.

Luckily, we had a bag of cinnamon red hots left from Nana's visit last year.

The finished products looked pretty good. 

They tasted even better!

G-Bear wanted to make sure that we were going to save some to share with Santa.

"But not too many," she said.  "We don't want him to get stuck in the chimney!"

E-Bear was especially proud of his cookies and particularly eager to share.

"You can have one of mine, Mom," he offered.

We baked a second batch without sprinkles in order to decorate with frosting later.  The next day we ventured over to GG's house with cookies and sprinkles in tow.  After caroling together in her apartment, we broke out the decorating supplies!  GG loved it.  She even decorated a few cookies herself (and ate both of them!).  By the end of our afternoon, we had a second lovely batch of cookies to share with our family on Christmas.

G-Bear's favorite was her angel.  

"I can't believe we made FOUR trays of cookies!" She said.

Our cookie making days are always a lot of work, but they make for many sweet returns.  The cookies that we enjoy during Christmas are delicious.  The time we spend together and memories that we make along with the cookies are even sweeter.

Happily Ever,
Queen B

On Guys weekends, breakfast biscuits, mom's group and Robie the iRobot

I am going...to miss T during his annual Guys Weekend coming up.  He has planned the group gathering again this year.  While it is always a lot of work and sacrifice to make it happen, it is always a weekend that blesses him and our family.  He comes back refreshed and encouraged, supported and challenged, a stronger husband and father.  I am so grateful that these wonderful Christian men continue to be part of T's life.

I am hoping...for the success of a new mom's group that is starting at our church.  I am helping to arrange childcare at our house once a month for all the pre-schoolers and toddlers of the mom's who attend the group.  I am hoping this will free moms up to attend the group, facilitate friendships among these great kids, and not result in the crumbling of our home ;).  Today, we hosted three caregivers and ten kids, ages 18 months to 5 years, and it was great!  The kids read a story, did crafts, sang songs and had snack and playtime, while we moms discussed the great topic of gift giving all by ourselves.  I am praying that these mornings will be a blessing to both kids and moms, to help us all in our walk with the Lord and each other.

I am learning...to make biscuits--real, southern style biscuits.  I have tried and failed numerous times since T and I got married, to my great disappointment.  T loves biscuits, thanks to his Grandma Cookie's awesome baking skills and general upbringing in the South.  But, he has had to settle for the refrigerated dough type.  Until now, that is.  I think I may have found the recipe we've searched for, thanks to Southern Living Magazine, and I think I have figured out the technique (fingers crossed!).  Last weekend, we celebrated Nana's arrival with breakfast biscuits!  Hooray!  They tasted great and looked like the real thing.  Now if only I can do it again this weekend....

E-Bear and I celebrate buttermilk biscuit success.

Around the house...we have a new friend, "Robie" the iRobot.  Robie came highly recommended by Aunt A, and now I know why.  He is a great new buddy to have around the house.  I wasn't so sure I would like him.  T, however, made the recommendation when he heard how often I was sweeping the kitchen floor on a daily basis.  Now, Robie keeps me company nearly everyday during afternoon rest time.  He follows me around, vacuuming, as I pick up the toys, books and chairs in his path.  He also works hard when I leave to pick up the kids or run errands during the day.  While we are still experimenting, I think he's a keeper.  He's much cheaper than a cleaning service and has far fewer side effects than the caffiene I would need if I were try to clean our floors on a daily basis.  Plus, the kids LOVE him!  They love to either sit on the couch and watch Robie work or follow him around the house.  He is quite the pied piper!

I am pondering...when to start J-Bear on solid food.  We are closing in on her 6-month mark, and she is starting to have trouble sleeping at night (because she gets hungry?).  I can't believe I will get to introduce another little soul to the wonderful world of solid food.  Sweet potatoes are looking good right now, so I better start pureeing for sweet J-Bear's upcoming meals.

(Thanks to the Simple Woman's Daybook for the inspiration!)

On new cookbooks, Jumping J-Bear, and a full, fall week

I am reading...New cookbooks sent by my sister-in-law, Aunt A!  Thank you, Aunt A!  Our whole family will appreciate the inspiration from these three great books: Indian Cooking Unfolded, Lighten Up America from Cooking Light, and Budget Bytes (a pre-ordered preview!). I have already planned several meals that I can't wait to try.  These cookbooks are such a thoughtful, unexpected gift.  What a treat!

One of my favorite things...is watching J-Bear jump in her Johnny Jumper.  We got ours out for her this week.  She took to it like a duck to water.  Now it is her favorite toy!  She especially loves to jump and watch us from the dining room doorway as we eat dinner.  From there, she can turn herself around to watch the kids play in the living room once they finish eating.  She has quite the perch. Sweet little J-Bear....

A few plans for the rest of the week: G-Bear goes back to school today, and we have a jam-packed week with Nana here to help us!  We're going to celebrate T's first year of work over a dinner with his co-workers, tackle lots of meetings, I'll prep for cardiovascular lectures and maybe do some fall shopping that I have been putting off. We're ready to hit the ground running!  

Five in the Kitchen

Our kitchen is very small.

I am not being critical, I am making a statement of fact.

The surest way to make a kitchen feel smaller is to pack a whole family of cooks into it.

Last night, that is exactly what we did.

T came home from work with milk and a pound of pasta for me,
rice cereal for baby bear,
and brownie-cookie bar mix for E-Bear and G-Bear.

We all swooned over him in our own way.

As I finished dinner, Baby Bear on my hip, T and the Bears made brownie-cookie bars.

There were two kids at the counter in the tower.  This takes up half of our floor space.
Two adults maneuvered around the tower between the stove, microwave and sink.  Envision lots of passing of utensils, ingredients, dishes.
One Baby was happily squeezed onto a hip in the midst of the action.  The dude doesn't like to miss out on the fun.
Keep in mind with this set-up: there is no opening the refrigerator, no loading the washer, no accessing the pantry cabinet, and no opening the counter cupboard, lest you boink someone's head.

Too many cooks in the kitchen?  No way.  I loved it.  I loved it even when one of the cooks, vigorously mixing, dropped cocoa & flour onto the floor and we had to break for a 'sweep-the-kitchen' break.  Both dinner and dessert tasted great.

By the way, God bless the inventors of the brownie-cookie mix.  It was a perfect treat for the Bears to make with their dad.  Two separate pouches, one for each kid to make, combined into one delicious dessert: what could be better?  E-Bear made the brownie base and G-Bear made the cookie dough top.  It was hard, finger-licking work.  At one point, T tried to advise E-Bear against finger-licking because of the raw egg in his brownie batter.  E-Bear replied in ernest,

"But Dad, there was chocolate on my fingers." 

Ah, so true, what else could he do? 

After dinner on the porch, we walked up to play at the park with our dessert in tow.  As we munched our brownie-cookie bars at the picnic table, G-Bear announced:

"I would like thank everyone who helped me make these cookie bars.  These are delicious!"

Someday, if I am enjoying a kitchen that allows me to open both the refrigerator and washer at the same time, I'll remember the fun we had in this one.  And I hope on that someday, when we have all that extra space, that my whole family is still cooking with me in the kitchen.  

Mission: Meals!

My mission for this week?  Homemade meals for dinner.  

It sounds mundane enough, but this past week taught me that it will be easier said than done.  

The hours at work have been long and tummies are hungry when I get home.  Plus I want to play with the Bears when I walk in the door, not run to the stove and cook for most of our brief evening together!  

I know it is going to take planning ahead--because otherwise I know we will be tempted to give up and eat out again this week (already happened twice last week and we blew past our food budget in the last few days of the month -- arrrgh!).  

Join me for the adventure.  I am crafting as we speak.  I will share what I find.

In the words of Arthur Ashe:

"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” 

Hmmm, sounds good?

I was out to dinner tonight with my best friends from medical school to celebrate Match Day. I asked the waitress about the soup of the day, and she replied, "Ox Tail Soup." The only thing funnier about her reply (at least to someone who has never had or heard of Ox Tail Soup) is that I actually have an ox tail in my freezer right now. When we bought at 1/2 grass fed cow in January (we have converted our house to free-range and grass fed beef), apparently I got the back 1/2, because the "ox tail" came too, appropriately labeled.

So, if anyone has a good recipe for Ox Tail Soup, please pass it on to me. If it is good enough to be the soup of the day at Hell's Kitchen, where we had a great dinner, then it must be a good way to use the ox tail in my freezer.

Just don't tell T what is in the soup......

Happily Ever,

Queen B