Easter bread

Somewhat varied from the recipe I got from my mom, which I think is somewhat varied from the one she got from her mom.

2 packages of yeast
1/4 c very warm water
3/4 c milk
6 eggs
3/4 c sugar (to sub honey, reduce other liquids a little)
3/4 c oil
2 t fresh grated orange peel or 1 1/2 t dried
1 1/2 t anise extract (or oil if you can find it)
5-7 c flour (I used half and half, white and whole wheat)

Dissolve yeast in water. Scald milk then cool to lukewarm. Combine these with the other ingredients, minus the flour.

Add one cup of flour and beat well. Continue adding flour gradually to make a soft dough that is easy to handle.

Knead just until smooth, then let rise in a covered greased bowl in a warm place.

Punch down, shape, let rise again; bake at 325 for about 35 minutes.

Relatively simple black beans

Rinse and soak your desired amount of black beans overnight.

Cook them according to directions, using the soak water so as not to lose nutrients.

Near the end of the cooking time, add some chopped carrots if so desired.

Uncover the pot and cook until most of the extra liquid (if you have extra) is gone. Using a wooden spoon or the like, mash up some of the beans — as much or as little as you like.

Season with garlic powder, chili powder, and dried cilantro.

Freeze in portions, if you made a bunch.

To eat, serve with chunks of extra sharp cheddar stirred in, and eat with tortilla chips — also good with buttered toast.

Originally I made this for Amy, but unseasoned. She didn’t care for it, so I ate the last two frozen cubes myself — and added the seasoning and the cheese. Maybe she’d have liked it seasoned, too — next time I’ll try it that way.

Smoked oatmeal

I left it on the stove too long. I hate to just stand there watching it, and I guess I got sidetracked and left it too long without checking.

Let’s just say that, even though there was enough non-burned oatmeal to eat, it has a rather, um, smoky flavor.

One-nap day #3

All went fine this morning, even though 4-5 inches of snow kept everyone away (it was my turn to host playgroup, and yesterday I had made a cake and defrosted a banana bread and tidied the house and tuned my dulcimer (one of the moms was going to bring her flute and stay late to play)).

The nap began at 1:00.

At 2:15 or so, I heard babble begin. Incredulous, I waited to see if she would go back to sleep.

At 3:00 or so, Mark got home. The happy babble was still going on, with occasional quiet moment. She doesn’t even have toys in there — just her three blankets and a giant stuffed dog. Amazing she could entertain herself so well, so long, in there.

At 4:00, we went ahead and got her up.

The rest of the day went reasonably well, considering; she was a little more reactive than when she’s slept well, but she coped well.

If the downward trend continues, will tomorrow’s nap be half an hour and Sunday’s be nothing at all? Just kidding. I think.

I am feeling a little worn down. I suppose it’s to be expected — the stresses of baby rash and kitty care, the transition to one nap with all the adjustments of expectations and plannings, the not having any in-person social contact other than a night at the dining hall…

Oh, and the coconut cake is good, but Amy’s birthday cake was better. This coconut cake is a recipe I got from the pastor’s wife in Ithaca. It’s a spice cake made with soaked oatmeal (and flour), with a cooked icing, with coconut in the batter (my innovation) and the icing (according to recipe; I left out the nuts because one mom’s son is allergic).

Oh, and I love my banana bread recipe — it tastes good and has good ingredients. But the crust is always rather hard. Is it the whole wheat flour instead of white? Or the maple syrup instead of sugar? Or the butter instead of oil? It would be nice to figure out how to make healthier baked goods that have the nice textures of the overly-processed kinds.

After midnight

A) Toaster oven #4 is sitting on the counter, while toaster oven #3 waits on the table to be taken to the dungeon basement or garage.

Our first toaster oven, a classic 4-slice Black & Decker, lasted the longest. I don’t remember the reason for its demise. #2 was a Toastmaster that lasted about a year. Its thermostat went wrong, and it overheated itself and started melting and almost started a fire. #3 is a 6-slice Black & Decker. On the plus side, it neatly fits a 9×9 pan of cornbread and bakes it without black stripes. On the other side, it’s bulky, and it no longer toasts. It’s a pain to have to broil your toast. You have to turn it, you have to watch it carefully, it takes forever… Besides, it’s a TOASTER oven.

#4 is a Dura-brand. Hey, you never know. It still fits a 9×9 pan, is less bulky than #3, and did our bagels just fine. So far.

B) One of my pet peeves is when anyone who loves me gets irritated with me for feeling a certain way. Yes, I know, I perpetuate this pattern on Amy (and everyone else), whose behavior about certain feelings can be very irritating. I don’t like that I do that, because I know how unfair and unpleasant it is. I am working very hard to learn how to have my feelings, let her have hers, and treat myself and her with compassion and respect. There’s got to be a way to be irritated (a feeling) and still gracious (an action). I think the irritation — mine or others’ — must have to do with boundaries — feeling attacked or blamed or thwarted by the irritating feelings / behavior. It is very difficult, but so very important, to extend grace, compassion, respect, despite one’s own and the other person’s feelings and behavior.

C) Tonight I made the dough for the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie crusts. I also managed to remember to put the pumpkin in the fridge to thaw. I should have done it earlier, since I need to make the pies rather early in the morning.

D) Today I made a Texas sheet cake for Amy’s birthday celebration. I haven’t made a cake from scratch in ages, and the last one wasn’t very good. This, however, was excellent. It’s an easy recipe, too; one I got from my mom. Maybe I’ll post it. The icing is even good, and I usually hate icing. This one is buttery fudgy.

E) Amy’s birthday celebration was fun, and even though I don’t have pictures yet I’m going to write about it anyway.

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Amy came over with a present for our Amy, who woke up from a nap in time to open it with her. It’s a little tea set, with pretty bright colors and simple raised flower designs — a teapot, sugar bowl, plates, saucers, utensils, cups. Amy has already poured “tea” in / on all sorts of things.

This morning, after my in-laws arrived, we helped Amy open her presents from family and from our good friends Jim and Jen. She participated a little bit, taking hold of a rip I’d start, and pulling it a little further open. She wanted to play with each thing (or a previous thing) instead of going on to the next. Just as we were deciding to stop half-way through she renewed interest in the still-wrapped gifts, so we continued through them all. (Thank you, everyone, for the lovely clothes and toys.)

Midday we ate tortellini and salad and cake and ice cream. We served everyone a piece of cake and ice cream, and brought Amy’s last, with the candle and the singing, so that she could dig in as soon as it arrived. I was afraid she’d try to touch the flame, so I blew out the candle for her. She patted the cake a few times but wasn’t sure what to do with it. She liked the taste of the ice cream but was puzzled by its coldness. Once we cut up the cake, she tackled it with great interest, even licking the little cutting board we’d served it on.

F) This week my “once a day” commitment is not doing so well. I am trying to keep my regular visiting to a minimum, but once in a while I need to get online again (like to find out how many cups of powdered sugar are in a box, since the recipe called for a box but I had a larger bag) and while I was on, I might as well take a peek at my email, and…

G) I should probably go to bed. It’s 1:00… and we have a busy day (again) tomorrow, with pie-baking and then a lunch in Culver on our way to Indy for the holiday.

H) G’night.

What do I think of the pie?

The pie is good. Very good.

Mmmmm… pie.

What we did today

Mark brought home a rather large pumpkin today, on sale after Halloween for just a buck. He wanted it for the seeds, which he roasted with garlic powder, along with the seeds from the pumpkin we carved the other night.

I thought, why not go ahead and cook this thing and see what happens?

I cut it up, which wasn’t as hard as I thought, certainly easier than cutting acorn squash or melons. Scooped out the nasty bits. Piled the pieces face down on two cookie sheets and baked them at 350 for about an hour and a half. Once it was cool enough to handle, I scraped the flesh into the blender and pureed it, and ended up with eighty ounces — enough for five pies.

Mark and I both tasted it and it is very bland. Since we’ve never tasted cooked, unseasoned pumpkin before, we don’t know if that’s normal or not. I figure we’ll make one pie and see how it turns out, and if it works, we’ll make the other four here and there in the coming months.

I was also surprised by how stringy it was, and I don’t know if that’s normal or not either.

I am pleased to have at least tried it — instead of just throwing (composting) all that pumpkin away.

Mark also watched some football and did some yard work. I also did some knitting and played some dulcimer. Amy played and ate and napped.

And this evening I gave her an empty cosmetics bag to play with, tucking some links and lids inside. It was quite fascinating. So was the kitty bed. Really, they make a great combination.

Focaccia pizza

I made Tamara’s focaccia again this evening. This time, topped with parmesan, cheddar, tomatoes from the garden, and Italian sausage. Mmmmm.

Homemade baby oatmeal

If you’d like to make real oatmeal for your baby but don’t relish the thought of making such a tiny amount every day, you can make a whole batch and freeze it like any other homemade baby food, in ice cube trays, then pop out the cubes into a storage container.

Banana oatmeal

I c oats
2 c milk
1 banana

Prepare the oatmeal according to the directions, using milk or formula or water — milk or formula is creamier. Mash the banana and add to the finished oatmeal, then freeze.

Apple oatmeal

1 c oats
1 3/4 milk
1 apple
1/4 water

Cut the apple into small chunks and simmer them in the water until you can pierce them easily with a fork. Add the oats and milk and continue cooking until it’s done.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to do nectarine oatmeal next — similar to the apple but probably less water and fruit-cooking time required.

Fake fudge

My sweet tooth has been after me lately, so tonight I created fake fudge:

Place one heaping spoonful of peanut butter in a small bowl.

Sprinkle liberally with cocoa powder.

Stir in a little maple syrup or your favorite sweetener.

The texture will be about the same as the peanut butter or a little stiffer, but not as stiff as real fudge. Still, it’s a nice sweet mouthful for very little work.

Even less work — just combine peanut butter and chocolate chips. More like cookie dough than fudge; very good.