Month: May 2010

Small transformations…..

River had her old crib still in her room….I had changed it into a day bed….it was mostly a stuffed animal bed!  I had been contemplating taking it down for awhile. …but couldn’t figure out if I wanted to or not….then I saw that ALL Simplicity cribs had been recalled, all makes and all models….and we had a Simplicity crib….it said that all cribs should be returned to the store where you purchased it…..so that made the decision easy for me!  She loves dress up and we needed a place to put all her dress up stuff….so we dragged an old chest out of the basement…..

And of course it needed a coat of paint!  And of course River had to help paint it!

Which of course, made things a bit more interesting…she wanted it painted then and there…and was very upset we didn’t have any pink paint…she had to settle for baby blue.  I promised her that during the summer we would paint a beautiful pink design over the baby blue…..

By today, the chest was dry…so we took down the crib and moved in the chest….of course, we had to rearrange a few other things…and read some books in between and play with Barbies here and there…and get out all the stuffed animals….vacuum out the cobwebs……you know how it is…..

But finally things were all back together…and River seemed pretty happy with her room…..

Banana bread and pasture raised eggs…..

My daughter loves banana bread, so I am always looking at new recipes.  I think I finally found my favorite!  And I think it is all about the eggs!  I found a recipe on the internet called Mrs. Hockmeyer’s Banana Bread, which, when you do a search on the internet for it..you find a million different sites that have the same recipe..so it must be good!

I have been searching for a store that carried pasture raised eggs..and I am so excited that Whole Foods has them!  They come from Vital Farms which raises their chickens outside, on organic pastures.  There are no cages and everything is organic!  I love that and I think the eggs taste better!  Yes, they cost more..but I think it is completely worth it!

The banana bread recipe was so simple….River was able to help me with the entire process.  And it tasted wonderful…except my other daughter, Tuesday, told me I forgot the chocolate chips!

Mrs. Hockmeyer’s Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

  • 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Biking…..

In many ways I love the area I live…but in many ways I do not love the area where I live.  I try to bike somewhere, if I can…but most of the times, this is just not possible.  And when I do bike, I am pulling a trailer with River in it.   While biking, I always follow all the correct safety rules but cars still honk, speed past us, don’t stop or pull along side us to let us know we should not be biking on the road.  It would be nice to live in an area that was biker and pedestrian friendly.  Most cars think the roads are only for them..this annoys me.

I love this video shot in the Netherlands.  It shows a typical rush hour day…..incredible…..

Excuse Me..Are You a Witch Mural….continues…

I’m slowly making progress on the new mural.  It is nice to be doing a smaller mural.  I can see the progress much faster…….not that I’m progressing that much faster..but even when I do something small, it seems like more.

The problem with this area is that it belongs to the dogs, literallly.  It is the only spot in the house where they like to sleep.  They aren’t allowed on any furniture, so this is their way of thinking they are on the furniture.  So, while I am painting, I have to shoo them away.  Then, when I am done, I have to put something on the window seat, to keep them away, until it is dry!

After the mural is finished, I need to get new cushions and sew new covers and pillows!

Handmade pull-ups…….

River is completely toilet trained, therefore she wears underwear during the day..but at night she needs something a little more….so I’m trying to perfect my overnight underwear…so far, I’ve made two pairs.  One is a bit too small and this pair is a bit too big…I need to find the in-between.  The important thing is that she loves them and is excited to wear them!

Animals in Children’s books…..

It bothers me sometimes how animals are depicted in children’s books.   They are rarely depicted in their natural habitat.  Normally, they wear clothing, talk, and live in human style houses.   I don’t mind the talking part…it wouldn’t work too well for a book if they never spoke, but I don’t understand why animals can’t be written about in a setting that is natural to them.

River has a book called A Birthday Cake for Little Bear.  It is a cute book….except for the fact that the pig has meat all over his kitchen…including pork!  I mean, how odd is that?  They couldn’t have just plants and herbs all over his kitchen..it would make more sense!

Recycling #5 plastics……

For about a year now I have been saving all our #5 recyclables…waiting for our local Whole Foods to start their preserve gimme 5 program.   If you don’t have a participating Whole Foods near you, you can mail your #5 plastics directly to Preserve, but I thought I’d wait until the program came to the Whole Foods near me.  So, I waited and waited and waited, and my #5 plastics started to really pile up.  But, in the last few months, they have expanded the program and now my Whole Foods is a particpant!  Yay!

So, it was time to get all the recyclables together and bring them to the store.  We had to sort through them because somehow some #6s got in there!  I don’t think many places recycle #6s!

So, River, Quinn and I got them all out and put them into a bag and headed to Whole Foods.

By this time River was getting a bit cranky and I had forgotten to pack a snack..good thing we were at Whole Foods….

We had so many recyclables, that they wouldn’t fit into the drop off bin, so we just left them in their bag.   I’m glad to see that so many other people are recycling the #5s.  They also have a cork recycling program.  Of course, while we were at Whole Foods I bought lots of yummy stuff.  I also got River a brand new Preserve toothbrush and told her how it is made from all the recyclables we just dropped off!

Also, at Whole Foods, they have a Nickels for Non-Profits, which is a community program which features a local non-profit for three months.   Instead of getting a five cent credit for each reusable bag…they give you a wooden nickel and you place the wooden nickels into the Nickels for Non-Profit box.   I think it is a great idea and the kids loved putting the wooden nickels into the box!

I was so happy when I got home..happy that I had finally gotten rid of all those #5 plastics…that the cabinets and the garage were cleared of them…then, I opened up a cabinet that I had forgotten about….

Watercolor Sandwiches….

River loves going to art class, but during art class she is supposed to eat lunch.  Sometimes she is so excited about the class, that she forgets that it is important to eat the lunch.  And then she gets hungry…..and grumpy..which isn’t good.  So, I try to do whatever I can to make her excited about her lunch.  She loves the concept of eating her lunch at the class, but actually eating it, is another thing!

So, to make her sandwich extra exciting..we make it into a watercolor sandwich!  We make her sandwich and then River picks out a cookie cutter design.  This time she chose a butterfly!  Then, I take a glass bowl and add a few drops of food coloring and add a few drops of water.   I have a special paint brush that is used only for food coloring.   Sometimes I paint the design for her and sometimes she wants to do it herself!

If she is doing it herself, I have to make sure she doesn’t use too much “paint” or the sandwich may become a bit soggy! If it does get a little soggy, I just leave it out for a bit and it dries quickly.   It is a simple thing that just takes a little bit of extra time.  And it involves River in making and getting her lunch together and packed, which I always think is important….and a good motivator!

Multigrain Bread…

So the other day I went to Whole Foods Market (gotta love that place!) and in the bulk section, I found organic 7 grain cereal.  It was only thirty-nine cents a pound!  It looked perfect for making multigrain bread.

Of course, I wanted to use my bread machine, so I used the recipe from the bread machine recipe book..I figured I would start with that and see how it turned out….well, I think it turned out really well.

As soon as it came out of the oven, we all wanted a piece, which I think is always a mistake..it seems like those types of bread always have to sit for a bit…at least twenty minutes.

Multigrain Bread (large loaf bread machine recipe)

1 ¼ cups water

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/3 cups white flour

1 1/3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup 7 grain cereal

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons regular active dry yeast