The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Cakes - Dad's Birthday - 1996

One of my first baking assistants was my sister's son, Calvin.  He was three when he helped me make this cake for my father for his birthday.  The cake was probably carrot cake or spice cake, and it was covered with a cream cheese frosting.

I made stencils of the tracings of Calvin's hands, and we dusted the hand patterns with cocoa powder.  The rest of the decorating was done with green colored frosting. 

Not much else to tell about this one.  I'm pretty sure it tasted good.

Yesterday's Morning Sky

Who spilled the pink?

An Experience Worth Telling

Last night was the next session of my kids' swim class at the local Y.  They're both in the Pike class, though Alex could progress up to Eel, but he's still kind of leery about jumping into the water unassisted.  He does well once he's in, but it's the scary jumping in that is holding him back from my husband's Olympic dreams.  Ah well.  We all get our bubbles burst from time to time.

Anyway, couple of little things from last night.  Okay, three.

First thing - it was EVEN hotter/more humid than usual in the pool room over there.  Just in case you were wondering.

Second thing - while we're sitting with the kids on the benches waiting for the earlier class to finish up, I noticed a little girl about Alex's height in a swimsuit.  She looked familiar, and within a second, I recognized her.  She and Alex went to daycare together when he went to earlier place (where he went for about 5 years of his 5 and a half years on the planet).  She is very cute in a tomboy girl way.  Pretty brown hair, big brown eyes, couple of baby teeth missing in the front with the edges of the adult teeth just starting to appear.  Very quick to smile.  Her father was tying the styrofoam "bubble" around her middle when she noticed Alex.  And I watched her telling her father and pointing to Alex.  So I hissed at Alex - "Hey, isn't that?" And he looked and looked away, because he is a cool macho boy and girls are yucky.  Bill joined in and tried to get Alex to say hi, but that didn't work either.  There was something very interesting Alex needed to stare at on the opposite side of the room.  The girl and her father sat a row behind us and as they climbed up, she said hi to Alex.  But of course, like I said, Alex is a cool, macho manly man boy and girls are yucky.  So he ignored her.  Which I thought was rude and so I hissed (yes, it's my day to speak Parsel-tongue) at him "SAY HI TO HER!!!!!" and, realizing I wasn't just kidding around, he turned around and tossed a casual "hi" over his shoulder in her general direction.

When the teachers came around to call the names of the students in their classes, GUESS who was in class with my kids.  Yep!  Bill and I grinned to each other like the goofy parents we have become and settled in to watch the show. 

Actually, it wasn't a whole lot of a show.  At first, she was at one end of the little line-up of students and he was WAAAAAAAAAAAY at the other.  Eventually, after late registrants had been added to the classes, there were 7 kids in that class.  Two boys, five girls.  And while Julia was still the tiniest, there was one other girl around her size.  But back to Alex.  The teacher passed out pool noodles to all of the kids and they hooked the noodles under their arms, across their chests, and began paddling and kicking across the width of the pool.  This is old hat for Alex and Julia, and like I said, Alex is doing well once he's in the water, so once he got acclimated to the process, he was way out in front of the pack every time.  They'd paddle and kick and splash across the pool, with their instructor helping the kids who were new to it, or joking around with Julia, the class clown.  (She hit him with a pool noodle last session.  And she was splashing water at him today.  He is great with little kids.)

Anyway, again, back to Alex.  After one or two races across the pool, lo and behold, guess who now was lined up next to Alex along the edge of the pool.  And guess who was chatting away with her like they were old war buddies.  I sat there elbowing Bill and giggling.  I'm so goofy.  Not much else came of it, but at least he wasn't being aloof any more.  He said "bye" to her as we left.  Girls aren't ALWAYS yucky.

And the third thing.  If you've been reading this blog for oh, the past two weeks or so, you know that Julia has had a bout with Lyme disease.  The most recent adventure was when she had to have blood work done.   That was last Friday.  One of her band aids (the Diego one, on her right arm) came off over the weekend, but she wouldn't allow anyone to touch the Dora band aid.  I'm sure she was afraid of more pain. 

But with pain and suffering often come great stories to share with friends and family, and Julia, while not as wordy as her mother, told her story with great passion and drama.  I overheard her telling Alex about it, her eyes wide, her face animated....

"I went to the BAD doctor, and she put a SHARP THING in my arms and I GOT BLOOD!"  And as she said this, she'd hold our her wounded arms, pointing at the band aids (or where the Diego band aid had been), her face drawn and grave.  She knows she's lucky to have survived that morning.  She's told the story to a few people now, and has her delivery down pat.

So back to last night.  We're watching the kids go back and forth with their pool noodles, and you know, Julia's small and so she kind of gets hemmed in by some of the slightly larger kids who can take off faster.  But she can move pretty fast if no one's in her way.  She smiles hugely through the whole class. 

She is not, however, there to learn to swim.  At least it didn't seem like that last night.  No, this is her social hour.  Social half hour.  She and the second-to-littlest girl bonded immediately and spent the swim-across-the-pool time chatting away about hair and nails and makeup and boys. 

We didn't notice this immediately, because we were too busy watching Alex and looking for signs of romance there.  And then Bill said "Why is she swimming with her arm like that?"  I looked, and there, in the middle of the pack, was Julia, her left arm raised straight up.  She looked like she was at a synchronized swim team practice session.  I waited for the next graceful move...and then I looked at her face.  It was no longer smiling.  It was grave.  Somber.  And her mouth was moving.  She was talking to her little best friend, and she was telling her the story of the Bad Doctor Who Put a Sharp Thing in her arms.  I saw Julia's mouth as it formed the words "And I got BLOOD!" 

She'd been holding up that arm so her little friend could see, with her own eyes, the scars of battle.

 

Breakfast in the Barefoot Kitchen

On weekends, I'll make something pancakes or french toast or an omelet - it's a much more relaxed time, so I don't mind cooking something special to order.

But on weekdays, there's not really enough time for that, so it's usually something quicker like oatmeal or cereal or eggs or Alex's personal favorite - a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich.  Or - "SAHMwich" as he sometimes snootily refers to it.  I don't know why. 

So that's what he had this morning.  And while I was spreading peanutbutter (Teddy, Old-Fashioned, Smooth) I thought I'd like some toast and peanutbutter with my coffee, too.  So I put a slice of bread in the toaster, brought Alex his SAHMwich, and sat down on the loveseat in the living room with my coffee.  Bill and Alex were sitting together in the slightly over-sized chair we have, watching the lizards and discussing what the native peoples of Alaska and parts north dine on.  Seals, fish, whales, etc.  Whatever they can get to eat.  And that led to a discussion of whether or not it's bad to eat other animals (* and please - this is just a little snippet of my morning, not an invitation to debate whether or not it's right to eat other living creatures.  This is not the place.)...and that led to a discussion about whether animals that eat OTHER animals are bad or not.  (General consensus - not.)

And while we were sitting around having this conversation, I got my camera, because Alex is really very cute when he's eating.  He just enjoys his food.  And I have taken a lot of pictures of Julia "Palsy-Face" Rose lately, so I figured I should balance things out with some shots of Alex.

Here's one.

When Alex eats a SAHMwich, he is very organized about it.  He goes straight across the cut edge of the bread, then back to the beginning, and across, and so on.  Occasionally he will pause to inspect his work, and then he'll get back to the task at hand.

While this was going on, and Bill was holding up his coffee mug because he doesn't like having his picture taken (I told him I wasn't interested in him, but in Alex, and that persuaded him to lower the mug.), we kept hearing two things - one was Julia speaking in a few different voices upstairs, obviously playing with a few of her million babies before joining the rest of the family.  The other sound was a brief hum coming from the kitchen - like something was turning on briefly and then off again.  Maybe the icemaker...maybe there were ice cubes stuck and they were jamming up the works.  That happens occasionally.  Whatever.  We've got dragons to talk about.  Are they bad?  No.  They are just doing what dragons do.  But they're not real anyway, so it's kind of a moot point.

And then something clicked in my slushy brain, and I went into the kitchen and realized, ah, my toast is ready.

Now, most people have a preference as to how dark or light they want their toast.  I vary, depending on the kind of bread, and whether or not I'm going to put butter or peanutbutter or butter and jam or what on the toast. 

But this morning was different.  I let the psychotic toaster decide.  And the toaster chose this:

 

Yes.  It's called "Blackened Bread" and if you like the cleansing effects of carbon on your teeth and innards, this is the toast for you.  If you like your toast extra crispy, look no further. 

Not everyone can achieve this level of cinder-like perfection.  I mean look at the even blackness over the entire surface of the bread, with that sad hint of brown reaching out from deep within the tiny nooks and crannies.

 

It helps to have a toaster that doesn't work properly any more.  The timing mechanism is broken, so when you're toasting something, the little knob just stays wherever you've set it, and the heat just comes on and stays on.  Forever.  Or until smoke is pouring out and someone finally realizes that OH, S***! - she was going to make toast this morning!   (Normally I set the oven timer when I am going to toast something, but this morning I was distracted by the food conversation in the other room.  Yes, I'm an idiot.)

I left the little toaster oven door closed and opened the back door so I could fan as much smoke out of the house as possible.  Bill disconnected the two smoke detectors near the kitchen and opened a window.  My eyes should stop stinging by mid-morning, I think.  I lit a candle to battle the smell.  It's not working yet.  Bill gratefully escaped to work, and the kids retreated to the basement to watch Curious George a bit before school.  And I, of course, took pictures.

Blackened Bread.  An exciting start to any morning.

Before I Forget (Again)

My sister, Meredith, is not only a first degree black belt in karate, but she is also an up and coming crocheting ninja princess.

She crocheted a lot of gifts for family and friends this year, and one of the things she made was this hat for Julia.

Actually, I need to get a better picture of it so you can see the top of it with the four crocheted chains that sprout from the top and dangle down.  But I wanted to at least MENTION it, finally, because I keep forgetting to and I really like braggin on my sister.  So take a look.

 

The blend of colors in the yarn are (00ps) is perfect for Julia, and she loves the hat. 

Mere also made scarves for Bill and me - I'll take pictures of them soon.  She's also working on a hat for Alex, and I'll post a picture of that when it's done, too.

Thanks, Mere!

In the Cookie Jar: Pecan Squares

Oh my. 

Think pecan pie.  Think candy.  Think cookies.  Now put them all in a jar and shake it up and you've got these delectable morsels.

Start out with a batch of  short dough.

Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.

Roll out the short dough and line the pan with it.  You may need to cut and paste pieces of dough to completely fill the pan, but that's perfectly fine.  No one's going to see it anyway.

Okay, now bake this at 425 F until golden, about 10 minutes or so, depending on your oven. 

Set aside and allow to cool.  Drop the oven temp down to 350 F.

While the short dough crust is baking and cooling, go ahead and assemble the following:

1 lb unsalted butter

4 oz granulated sugar

12 oz honey

1 lb brown sugar

2 lb pecan pieces

4 oz heavy cream

You'll also need a candy thermometer on hand.  And a large, heavy sauce pot.

A word of caution - we're going to be bringing a lot of sugar to the boil - PLEASE be aware that boiling sugar can give you some of the worst possible kitchen burns possible.  The sugar will start to cool (it's a relative term - it won't FEEL cool) when it hits to your skin, and it will STICK to you and the part that's touching your skin will still be extremely hot and will just hang on and burn, burn, burn.  If you splatter boiling sugar on yourself while you're making this recipe, IMMEDIATELY run or pour cold water on the sugar on your skin and get the sugar off of you as fast as you can.

Okay?  But don't let that deter you - it's kind of fun to boil sugar, just so long as you have a healthy respect for what it can do.

Put the butter, granulated sugar, honey, and brown sugar in your sauce pot. 

Set the flame on high and bring the mixture to a boil.  It will take a while for everything to first melt

and then heat up,

 

and at some point it will seem to you that the temperature will never go high enough,

but just be patient,

and keep an eye on your candy thermometer.

   

You want to bring the boiling sugar up to 257 F.  When you reach that temp, add the pecans and the heavy cream, stir it around and shut off the heat.

Stir some more to make sure everything is well combined, and then pour it into the pan on top of your short dough crust. 

   

(I was using a really deep pot, and I had two pans to fill...and I wanted to be able to tilt the pan without burning myself and distribute the pecan mixture evenly and quickly between the two pans.  So this is what I rigged up.  I've got another pot upside down in between the two pans.  I have a damp cloth on top of that pan so the hot pan of sugary goodness won't slip.)

(And oh, would you look at that lovely mess of dish towels and Alex's socks there on the floor.  Hmmm...apparently the maid went home early that day.)

Bake in the oven for at least 20 minutes, or until the pecan mixture is bubbling and the top is semi-firm.  I think it took mine at least 30 minutes, but my oven runs cold, and also I was making two pans at once.  And I kept peeking.

Allow to cool completely.

When you're ready to cut this enormous cookie into pieces, run a knife along the edges of the pan that aren't covered by parchment paper.  Very gently, begin to tug at the parchment along the edges of the pan to loosen the product from the pan.  The cooked and cooled sugar will make it stick.  Be patient.  I've ripped plenty of parchment paper in the process.  Once you've loosened the edges, the rest should go smoothly - just tilt the pan and tug on the lower end of the pan until the whole thing slides out onto your work surface.

You can cut this up any way you want.  This year I cut small squares no bigger than an inch on a side because the little paper candy cups I had on hand wouldn't hold anything bigger.  I had wanted to cut out little circles, but my smallest round cookie cutter wasn't deep enough and kept getting stuck.

 

Keep in mind all the butter and sugars and honey and nuts are very rich in combination and you don't need enormous portions.  If you want more, just have another one.  After all, they're so small....

Morning Sky in Narragansett

Went down to visit my sister this morning...took a bit of a detour and shot a few pictures...

To see them all, you can go here.

Homemade Tortellini

My sister and my brother-in-law went out to eat the other night at Arturo Joe's - a fabulous restaurant in Narragansett.  They both had the Tortellini Carbonara for their meals - my brother-in-law had chicken added to his - and of course the food was sublime.

Anyway, I couldn't figure out a way to sneak down to their house and steal the leftovers, so I figured I had to make my own.

Julia the Brave

Just a few pictures from this afternoon...

   

Julia Update - Adventures at the Lab

I remember one time when I was pregnant with one of my kids - I think it was Alex - and I had to go have some routine lab work done, which, of course, included blood work.  I'm okay having blood taken, but it's not my most favorite activity in the world.  I think I'd be a little worried about myself it it was, actually.

Anyway, I went to the lab to pee in a cup and give them some blood.  And so this lab chick did the usual tying off of my left arm, swabbed the crook of my elbow with alcohol, and tapped on the tender area a bit to get a little blood vessel to show itself.  Tap tap tap.  Apparently the veins are shy in my arms.  Anyway, she finally decided to go for it, and proceeded to jab the needle in and FISH AROUND IN MY ARM A BIT because the vein had retreated somewhere deep in my arm and she couldn't find it.

It hurt.

After a bit of that, she removed the needle and decided to try the other arm.  Same routine - swabbing and tapping.  And then the jab - and MORE SEARCHING FOR A VEIN.  Do you know what it feels like to have a little needle under your skin, searching around for something with blood in it?  Oddly enough, IT DOESN'T FEEL GOOD.

So then she finally thought she should get some help, so she called in another lab worker - someone with experience in what she told me were extremely thin veins - and that woman nailed it on the first try.

I have since gone into any bloodwork situation advising whoever is wielding the needle that I HAVE VERY THIN VEINS - PLEASE USE A SKINNY NEEDLE until one day someone told me I didn't have thin veins at all.  Perhaps that other woman just didn't do a good job.  And that seems to have been the case.

That was just a little background story for you.

This morning, after dropping Alex off at kindergarten, Julia and I got some chocolate donuts to fortify ourselves and headed down to the lab so Julia could be thoroughly tested for Lyme.  She carred in a little plastic bear with her, and we took a number and waited.  Not a long wait - we were the first ones there. 

A young, pleasant girl wearing medical profession white shoes led us through a labyrinth to the little blood-drawing room.  I gave her the prescription page from Julia's Dr with all the tests he wanted run, and she started looking through the cupboards for something.  Perhaps a textbook.  Oops, that was prematurely  mean of me.

Then she said she didn't have any of the bottles for pediatric bloodwork - they have a pink top, apparently - so she called another lab office in another building in the same enclave of brick medical buildings to see if they had some.  They didn't.  The girl she spoke with told her it was ok to use a normal adult bottle.  So after taking off Julia's coat and putting it back on, I took it off again, and mine, and we sat on the chair of torture.

Julia sat on my lap, and this cushioned table thing came down to lock us in.  Lab Girl gathered the bottle and another bottle with an amber liquid in it, and a little carry tray with all the stuff that would be a part of Julia's fun and exciting lab experience.  For some reason, Lab Girl put these things on the padded surface of the locking-us-in table...it crossed my mind that it wouldn't be a good thing if that bottle of liquid got shoved off by mistake.  But - not my call to make.

Lab Chick pushed up the sleeve of Julia's left arm and swabbed it with alcohol and then with iodine.  I tried to distract Julia by discussing the color of the iodine and Look!  It has little bubbles!  It's amazing how many dopey things have come out of my mouth since becoming a mother.  I mean - in addition to the regular dopey things that came out before.

Anyway, Lab Chick wrapped a blue rubbery strap around Julia's biceps to cut off the flow or to give her a preview of the hell to come.  Lab Chick was nice enough - she asked Julia if she was strong, if she liked Dora, and normal girly chitchat like that.  She had me hold Julia's right arm under the restraint bar/table thing, and hold Julia's left wrist.  She had  Julia hold an empty vial and squeeze really hard.  Then Lab Chick tapped on the tender little inner aspect of Julia's elbow and stuck Julia with the needle.

Julia wrenched her arm away (she is very strong...and I wasn't holding her tightly enough, obviously) and cried out and from there it just got worse and worse.  I tightened my hold on Julia's tiny little wrist and basically stretched her arm out so she couldn't wiggle, and I held her tightly around her little waist with my other arm.  Lab Chick tried again and we watched my baby's red blood flow through the skinny tube into a vial. 

And we listened to Julia yell and cry.  It was horrible.  But not AS horrible as it was to become.  I kept murmering "it's okay, it's okay, you're a brave girl, you're being such a good girl, it's almost done, it's almost done" in one long run-on sentence in Julia's ear, and I'm sure she didn't hear any of it because she was busy hollering "I WANNA GO HOME!" over and over, pausing occasionally to sob and gulp and gasp shakily for more air before yelling some more.

Lab Chick finally pulled the needle out and pressed some gauze on the wound and got Julia her Dora band aid.  Look!  Who else is that?  It's Boots!  And Map!  Julia's crying slowed and she calmed down.  And Lab Chick finally decided to mention that she wasn't done yet.  She still needed blood to put in with that amber liquid.  I guess that was for the actual Lyme test.  She looked a little dubious about continuing.  "It's up to you..." she told me.

If it was really up to me we would have been gone.  But that would mean coming back another day for the rest of it, and that would probably be harder to accomplish, since Julia would recognize the building and I wasn't sure I could get the local National Guard to get her into the building again.

So I said to Lab Chick "It's got to be done.  We're here already.  Her other arm, right?" 

Of course, once Julia heard me say "other arm" she knew what was going to happen and she fought with all her strength to not allow it.  Unfortunately, she's only three and a half and so eventually she was back on my lap, left arm locked (by my left arm) around her torso, her right wrist in my right hand. 

And Julia was bawling.  And her voice dropped octaves and got all scratchy - she sounded like Suzanne Pleshette - and she just kept crying NO I DON'T WANT THAT IN MY ARM I WANNA GO HOME and other stuff I couldn't even understand because Julia was drooling and crying and gasping and I was trying to ignore it all so that I could do the sucky job of being a human manacle.

And here's where it got worse.  Lab Chick got a bunch of blood flowing, and then she apparently had to get that blood into the bottle of amber liquid, which was now at my right on the arm of the torture chair of hell.  And she just...I don't know if she was flustered or just SLOW BY NATURE or what, but she seemed unsure of what to do, and couldn't get the little blood thing into the little plastic funnel contraption for the bottle (to keep everything sterile) and while she's screwing around trying to figure out how it worked, blood was dripping out the end of the little tube, and she's distracted by it and NOT MOVING FAST ENOUGH IN MY OPINION and Julia's loud and practically incoherent (at one point she choked out "MOMMY (gasp) I'M BEING A (sob) GOOD GIRL NOW!!!" - I almost started crying myself at that point), and meanwhile the freaking needle is still in Julia's arm WIGGLING AROUND and I wanted to BITE Lab Chick or scream at her, but I didn't want to make Julia more upset, so I just fumed quietly in my head and kept trying to reassure Julia and NOT BITE LAB CHICK.  After screwing around pointlessly for oh, what seemed like several millennia, Lab Chick finally just took the needle out of Julia's arm,  had me hold some gauze on it and she finally figured out how to get Julia's blood into the amber liquid. 

Julia got a Diego band aid this time.  She politely declined the offer of a sticker.  "I just wanna go home, Mommy."

Instead we went to the grocery store to get a few things (which I just realized are still in their bags on the kitchen floor, heh heh, dairy products and all) and told her we could get her a balloon...no, TWO balloons, one for each arm.  If she'd asked, I'd have bought all the balloons.  Instead, she saw a Pink Panther balloon and we also found a Sponge Bob balloon for Alex.  And I bought her a Go Diego Go DVD.  And a monstrous box of goldfish crackers.  If she'd asked for lobster and filet mignon, I'd have bought that too. 

I had this very strong urge to just go through the store loading the cart with anything she might want.  But I didn't.  I also had an urge to cry.  And to throw up.  I didn't do those either.

Right now Julia is downstairs eating goldfish and watching Diego rescue animals. 

And I am trying to shake the sound of "MOMMY, I'M BEING A GOOD GIRL NOW!" out of my ears.

Julia update

Not a whole lot to report - I called the doctor's office this morning and her pediatrician called me back.  I told him about the partial facial paralysis and he said he was convinced it was Lyme disease, and that he wanted to put her on another antibiotic for 28 days, and wanted her to have a blood test as well.  And he wanted to see her, just to make sure there weren't any other neurological issues.

So we had an appointment this afternoon.  Dr. S put Julia through a bunch of physical tests - had her make different faces, tapped her knees and checked other reflexes.  It was sort of funny - I wonder, in particular, what she was thinking of all this when he had her stand in front of him, her eyes shut, arms out, and he poked her in the chest from various angles, I'm guessing to check her balance.  She stayed upright.  Then he had her walk across the exam room and back.  She looked at him a little suspiciously, maybe wondering what annoying thing he was going to do next.

But she was a good sport, and he's a great doctor - I can't say enough about that - and then he told me that the reason he wanted her to come in was more to set his own mind at ease - there was a slim possibility that there was something else wrong (I can't remember what he called it) that could result in damage to her brain.  "But she's way too healthy for that," he told me, while she and Alex were climbing around on the exam table, leaning over the side.  I was trying to pay attention to Dr. S while wondering how much damage she'd do to her brain if she fell off and landed on her head.  But she didn't fall.

I'll bring her in for the blood test at the lab tomorrow - it was temporarily closed when we went over there today. 

So anyway, that's the scoop.  She's finishing up her other antibiotic, and she started the amoxicillin at bedtime tonight. 

I had a bout with Lyme disease a bunch of years ago - I think I was out of work for about a month - it was kind of like having Mono, which I have also had.  I just felt achy all over, exhausted, I slept a lot, I just didn't feel well for a long time. 

So I'm sure she's not feeling great either - she has frequent bouts of crying, she's much more sensitive, emotionally, and gets upset very easily, especially if Alex is teasing her (or merely annoying her in an older brotherly way).   She's getting a dose of Tylenol in the morning, and a dose of Motrin before bed, and that seems to be enough.  We play that by ear.  And she gets a lot of hugs and snuggling.  Whatever will work for her.  Fortunately she's not miserable all the time.  It's just that when she is, she really is.   

I'll update again when there's something new to tell. 

Cakes - "Who's the Genius?" - 1996 (I think)

This one has a little story.

This is the slightly shortened version.

My cousin, Steve, had gone to Chicago on business.  While he was out there, he had shopped at a Warner Brothers gift store and brought home a black plastic "bomb" with a fuse coming out of the top - like in the cartoons.  There was writing around the top of the black ball - "Who's the Genius?"  And inside, Steve told me, was a tee shirt.  Cool packaging. 

And it was empty.  Steve was stunned (and annoyed at spending money on an empty plastic ball), and I thought it was incredibly funny. 

Now...to add some background - Steve and I are the same age - I'm a month older - and we've known each other since we were twelve.  We've always had a friendly sort of rivalry in terms of who's smarter - I'm probably the crueler of the two of us.  He's much better natured. 

So - the empty plastic container struck me funny on a few levels.

And so, when it was time to make his birthday cake, I had the perfect subject matter.

I don't even remember what kind of cake was inside.  Probably chocolate.  I do, however, remember grinning like a fool the whole time I was making this, the whole time I was icing it in black, and writing "Who's the Genius?" around the top. 

And honestly?  He's much smarter than I am.  But don't tell him I said that. 

Potato Gnocchi

I've made this a couple of times lately. 

I love gnocchi.  I love potatoes.  I love pasta.  I admit it - my name is Jayne, and I'm a Starchaholic.

Now that we're clear on that point, let's get back on track.

Bits and Pieces From the Past Week or So

Alex has "discovered" cartoons.  The old ones.  The real ones.  His favorites?  Hands down, it's Tom and Jerry, and the Pink Panther. 

I swear to you I have never heard him laugh SO HARD in his entire five and a half years as he does when Jerry gets the best of Tom in some evil, painful way...or when something blows up and that little large-nosed man who gets annoyed by the Panther is turned briefly to soot. 

Today it's Christmas all over for Alex - there's a Tom & Jerry MARATHON on TV, and he is soaking in as much as he can.  Every so often I hear this burst of helpless, happily horrified, chortling laughter burst out from the basement.  Sometimes he'll see the gag coming and let out a little "oooOOOHHHHHH!" before the guffaws take over. 

And watching him - he can't sit still.  The mirth flows through his blood and makes his legs dance and his arms flail about in blissful delirium.  If he's on the floor, he's jumping up and down.  If he's on the furniture, he's either wiggling unstoppably or jumping up and down (until I catch him and tell him to cut it out). 

This is enormously fun to watch.  Alex, I mean.  His blossoming appreciation for physical humor and cartoon violence....it's a coming-of-age thing, kind of.  And it's priceless.  That sound, his laughter.  There is nothing better.

Julia watches too, and she laughs sometimes, but she's not as enthralled as her brother. 

~~~~~

The kids have been playing against Bill at some little memory card games - the kind where all the cards are face down, and you have to turn two over and if they match, you keep them, and if not, you turn them back over.

Bill has lost most, if not all, of the games they have played.  And he's not LETTING them win, either.  Oh no.  He's not that kind of person AT ALL.  So it's particularly amusing when a five year old and a three year old beat him repeatedly.  Alex tried to console him one day by offering to help him do better next time.  "How bad is that when a five year old practically offers to let you win???"  He was visibly upset.  hahahahaha. 

Last night they were playing and I was folding laundry - I was sort of around the corner in the basement and couldn't see them, but I could hear.  Julia had just won the most recent game.  Alex had won the game before.  And Bill had come in third both times.  Alex helpfully pointed out what the problems might be.  "Daddy probably doesn't win because he's not in school any more.  Maybe they didn't HAVE memory games when Daddy wasn't in school!"  on and on like that, until Bill actually cried out, anguished, "Alex, shut up!" 

They play Go Fish also.  I watched the end of a game when I was done with the folding.  It's pretty funny.  The kids are finally learning to hold their cards up so the other players can't see what they've got.  But still, there are tactics they haven't quite mastered.  For example:

Julia:  "Does anybody have any flowers?"

Alex:  "Nope."

Bill:  "Go fish!"

Julia: (as she leans over and everyone can see the cards in her hand.  She picks up a card from the pile) "I have a turtle!"

Alex:  (who has a turtle in his hand) "Does anybody have a turtle?"

Julia:  "I do!" (she hands it over happily and says, laughing at the coincidence) "Alex wanted a turtle and I HAD a turtle!  Wasn't that funny!?" (and she does a Homer Simpson-like "doh!" kind of thing).

Bill:  (says nothing.  Just opens and closes his mouth a couple times and shakes his head.)

Alex, no surprise, won the game.

~~~~~

Julia had asked Santa for a baby doll for Christmas.  She got four.  One from each of Bill's brothers, and two from Santa himself. 

One is a "Baby Alive" that drinks and wets and came with only three spare diapers.  The manufacturer apparently has never had a newborn for longer than an hour and does not realize that three diapers is not gonna cut it for long.  That baby also makes sad noises when she's hungry, happy noises when she is content (i.e. drinking her water) and then restless and fidgety when she's wet. .

Baby number two is, I believe, the biggest baby of the crew, and she sounds frighteningly real.  So much so that if she's crying in another room, I have thought that it was Julia crying.  The baby says "Ma-Ma, Ma-Ma" when you squeeze her cheeks, and I think she laughs when you tickle her feet.  Interesingly enough, Bill dropped her on her head one day and she didn't cry at all.  After Julia had opened this one, she carried it around just like a real mommy would carry her real baby, offering the baby her bottle when she cried, and ferociously telling Bill to "Go Away!" when he came anywhere near the baby.  She is already quite the mother tiger.

Baby number three is a Cabbage Patch newborn - her second, and a boy, and black.  He's very cute.   The lone blue-clad baby in a sea of pinks.  He gets along  nicely with her other Cabbage Patch newborn.  I don't actually know what color her clothes are - they're most likely pink or purple, but Julia strips her children naked early on and those clothes have long since disappeared.  Baby Boy, so far, has not suffered this treatment.  But he will.  She just hasn't gotten around to it yet.

Baby number four is all cloth and came with a little sling kind of thing to sleep in and a backpack so Julia can tote her around.  She arrived with pink clothes, but she's down to her skivvies (sewn on) now.

Julia also got a set of Princess baby accessories - a high chair, a stroller, and a playpen.  The playpen can be disassembled and stored in a cylindrical fabric case that zips closed and has a fabric handle.  A day or two after Christmas I saw Julia load one of the babies into that cylindrical case, zip it closed, and lug the child around like that for a while.

These four bring her baby total up to ten.  I thought it was eleven, but apparently Dressy Bessy isn't a baby, so she doesn't qualify for inclusion.

One afternoon in order to break up a squabble in the making, I did my idiot-mother thing of gasping in surprise and delight, widening my eyes and announcing "I've got an idea!"  They stare at me and forget about wanting to hit each other, and I will say something like "First, you guys have to get ALL the BABIES and bring them UPSTAIRS!"  So they dash off on their scavenger hunt and this keeps them busy for a bit.  Alex is still happy to play with the baby dolls sometimes, which is nice for Julia, until he gets tired of it and she gets mad at him.  Kind of like practice for when they're married to other people and have kids of their own....

Anyway, all the babies were rounded up and brought up to the bedroom.  I'd been using the old changing table as a storage area for stuffed animals, but I cleared them off of the top two shelves and grabbed some baby blankets and made up two long beds.  I called for the babies, and arranged them in two rows of five on their new bunk beds, then covered them with a couple more baby blankets.  Ta-da!  Mommy's so clever.

Yesterday the kids were playing in the room and all the babies were lying on their bunkbeds but with no blankets covering them. 

"That's okay, Mommy,"  Alex told me, before I had even said a thing.  "We put baby spray on them and that keeps them warm.  They don't need blankets."

Baby spray.  hahahahahaha.

~~~~~

Don't know if you remember, but several posts ago I mentioned that Julia is now being treated for Lyme disease.  I mentioned the red splotchiness on the side of her face, between her red left ear and her left eye.  That's subsided, but last night a new symptom appeared.  I was taking a bubble bath and Bill was bringing the kids to bed.  Julia banged on the bathroom door "I wanna give you a KISS!" she hollered at me, so I wrapped up in a towel and opened the door.  She stood there in her pink snowflake jammies looking coy, just half a grin on her smug little face.  Or so I thought.  Turns out she's got a partial paralysis of her left cheek going on.

At first I thought maybe she had a canker sore and it hurt to move that side of her face, but no.  I had her close her eyes, and sure enough, her right eye closed fine, but the left eye - well, the lower lid wouldn't rise up to meet the upper lid, so I got the creepy experience of seeing the left eye roll up, leaving a bit of the white exposed.  When she's asleep, the eye closes completely and she looks fine.  But if you just ask her to shut her eyes, you get that partially opened thing happening.

I looked it up and that's actually one of the symptoms of Lyme disease in toddlers.  It goes away, but at the moment, it's a little disconcerting.  I want her to have her whole smile back.

Sure, it's a cute half-grin...

...but it's not quite the same.

One Last Decorated Cookie Picture from 2007

I decorated this set on maybe the 23rd and 24th, and took this one picture a couple days after
Christmas.  It was the only one left of the bunch.

It's a gingerbread cookie, with a blend of green food colorings in the royal icing to give it a nice leaf color...I used a little offset spatula to create texture...and then piped on little red holly berries...and then painted thin lines of watered-down royal icing and sprinkled on clear sparkling sugar (it doesn't melt when you get it wet or bake it...at least not for a long time) to create the icy/frosty/snowy look.

They were fun and relaxing to do.  I wanted to have more time to decorate some of the cookies I'd made, but it was not to be.  I'll budget more time for that next year, hopefully.  And in the meantime, there are plenty of other holidays and occasions coming up, with plenty of reasons to decorate cookies. 

And besides, I have so many cookie cutters longing for their fifteen minutes of fame. 

Hmmm.  That might be an interesting project for the upcoming year...actually USE more than just the Halloween ones, the dinosaurs, and the traditional holiday ones for a change.  I think that deserves some consideration....