Guess Who's Ten?

Another double digits kid!

 

When did that happen??? I was pregnant with her when we moved here.

Robins and Leprechauns

Spring is here! Earlier this week, Dawn saw a robin in our backyard. I was jealous, because I hadn't seen one yet, but luckily I could rectify that in Concord.

 

On Thursaday, I found myself geocaching in Concord, doing a geocache with an Irish theme. I was feeling good about being outside, sunshine, melting snow, finding the leprechaun goodies in the cache. My happiness was increased greatly by seeing many robins on my way to the cache, and hearing them all around me.

 

Today, I was walking Giant with a friend and two cats, and lo and behold, I spotted my first neighborhood robin. It is spring!

 

Life is green and good and filled with robins and leprechauns.

 

Did I mention spring is here? I LOVE it!

So Many Vibrant Colours

My life has been a tad interesting lately, with many different and vibrant colours swirling around me.

 

I would write about it, but I need to get some sleep, so I will instead be grateful for wonderful kids and good friends.

 

At least we are past the equinox and spring has started.

 

I have many posts in my head, but today it will mostly be pictures.

 

Walk carefully, my friends.

Tea Eggs

Especially for mongoose and anyone else who doesn't know what tea eggs are. Tea eggs basically are a Chinese snack (茶叶蛋), a hard boiled egg, boiled again in a tea marinade, after you crack the shell.

There are many different ways of varying the marinade, and they all lead to different flavorings. What is constant amongst the results is the really cool way the egg looks after you peel it. You can see the pattern of the cracks.

 

I hard boil some eggs, and try to rescue as many as I can from my kids who love hard boiled eggs. I take the eggs and crack them, trying not to break them in half by rolling them vigorously (not that that ever would happen of course...) and boil them in enough water to cover them. To the water, I add lapsang sou chong tea, anise, a cinnamon stick, some soy souce, a bit of sugar. Now simmer them for a long time (hours) to give them time to absorb all the flavors of the tea, till I suddenly remember that I am boiling tea eggs, turn off the heat, let them cool down, and refrigerate them in their marinade.

There are many tea egg recipes on line if you want to experiment.

They are fast, easy, tasty protein snacks, great on hikes, effective to entertain your friends, and wonderful for pretending to have found old dinosaur eggs in your backyard. The very first time I served those, in the Netherlands, I arranged them on a nest shaped mound of noodles and put some greens next to the eggs. They looked awesome.

Yesterday

There might not be a tomorrow, but January 2005 sure feels like yesterday to me!

 

I am very blessed with so many wonderful kids!

Quote of the Day

Me, telling something to Sylvia about what we are going to do tomorrow.
Sylvia, thinking for a few seconds 'Mama? There is no tomorrow, there is only today. It never will become tomorrow.'

I had to agree to this statement, at the same time marveling how she got this at 4yo, while I am sure I was more like 7 or 8yo before I got into anything philosophical like that. Heck, I have met grownups who haven't learned yet to embrace the current moment.

 

For the sake of practicality, I now often modify my statements about tomorrow to 'Today, after you sleep... ' just to not get into a philosophical discussion every time.

Red Pink Eye

This picture reminded me of Jane's pink eye.

 

I guess I will add a doctor's visit to tomorrow's already full schedule. Oh joy.

Vermont

Today, I was driving through Vermont, and once again realized that I feel so much more like a Vermonter than a New Hampshirer. And I don't know why.

 

Maybe it is because my first American home was in Vermont. Maybe it is the kind of people who seem to be attracted to Vermont. Maybe it is the mountains, which I love.

 

It is an interesting observation, that even after ten years in New Hampshire, I still feel strongly connected to Vermont. And comparing my property taxes to my Vermont friend's property taxes made me go 'Hmmmmmm....'

Even after today I heard yet again the joke 'Vermont has nine months of winter and three months of bad skiing.' Indeed it does! But I still love it.

Love Thursday in Japanese English Engrish

One of my birthday presents, from my dear sister, came in an interesting bag.

 

We all talked for a while about the meaning of the phrase. And never reached a full consensus. We think both cats want to get out and want to prevent the other one from getting out, but who knows.

 

Any better guesses?

Anyway, happy Love Thursday!

How I was Late For My Own Birthday Party

Today, I started the day with a go lesson, and a wonderful breakfast. I also prepared rice pudding, and cinnamon raisin bread, and then Dawn and I went off to puppy class.

 

Since everyone goes to puppy class on their birthday, no?

 

Giant was Not A Good Puppy At All at class. A Very Very Bad Puppy. But luckily he also is a Very Cute and Very Perfect Puppy. Anyway, he had a great class. Kind of. If you ignored the not so great moments.

 

After puppy class, we always go eat The Best Pizza Ever in Rutland, VT. But life happened, both for us, and for the pizza place, and we got greatly delayed. You know, one of these delays which starts out at 10 minutes, and just keeps growing. But the pizza was worth it.

 

At home, my friends were waiting and singing 'Happy Birthday' to me. Life is good!

Tea, Chocolate, Cards, and Happiness

 

 

 

 

Good Food and Good Friends

I can't even begin to describe how great it is to have so many good friends locally.

 

We had fishy waffle, sesame balls, quiche, pot stickers, cinnamon raisin bread, rice pudding, vegetables and dips, cakes, brownies, so much good food.

 

And yes, we still have snow on the ground, thank you very much.

 

Some people had never had tea eggs before, can you imagine? Sylvia make me proud last night by coming into the kitchen, sniffing, and saying 'Oh, I smell tea eggs!' Glad she knows her classics. Better than my friend who thought it smelled like someone was smoking marijuana.

 

Life, The Universe, and Everything

Sylvia had figured out the perfect solution for today.

 

'Mama, from Sunday on, the answer to life, the universe, and everything will be 43.'

 

For years, I had not really celebrated my birthday beyond mostly family. Things just didn't work out.

 

Today, they did. Thanks to some pushing by a dear friend. Any one who thinks the answer is still 42, is clearly mistaken.

 

Happy Pi Day Cake Day!

My kids truly do rock. In honor of Almost Pi Day Cake Day, they baked cakes all day. My visiting kid started the day by asking me whether she could start baking cakes early this morning, but we didn't have the supplies, so she couldn't yet. Later I took her and three of my own kids grocery shopping and life was good.

 

Erik baked a pumpkin shaped cake, our visitor baked another cake, and Kate baked cupcakes.

 

To counteract all the cake, Dawn made a great macaroni and cheese for dinner. I love having kids old and capable enough to cook and bake spontaneously.

 

Happy Cake Day to y'all!

Bagels 101: Step 4 and 5 The Baking and Eating

Bake the bagels in a 425 oven for 20 to 25 minutes. The recipe says to turn over the bagel at about 15 minutes into the baking time, but I have never bothered doing so. They seem to be fine without turning over.

 

Take them out, and roll dice to decide who can choose the first one.

 

Eat and enjoy!

 

If you want to make onion topped bagels, bake the plain bagels 20 to 22 minutes, then take them out. Glaze, sprinkle and bake for an additional 2 minutes. This prevents the onions from burning.

 

Bagels 101: Step 2 and 3 The Shaping and Boiling

Bagels are an interesting bread, because the dough gets boiled before it gets baked. To prepare the water bath, add 2 tablespoons of non-diastatic malt and 1 tablespoon of sugar to 2 quarts of water. Preheat your oven to 425 F and bring the water bath to a gentle boil.

 

Shape your bagels by poking your finger through a ball, and twirling the dough around your finger. This is my favorite part of bagel making. If your ball was smooth and perfect, you will have a perfect bagel. If you ball had imperfections, your bagel might not be perfect either.

 

Transfer your bagels to the water bath. My pan accomodates four at a time. Boil them for a minute, flip them over, and boil them for another minute. After boiling, transfer the bagels to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

 

If you want to put toppings on, prepare a glaze by beating one egg white with a teaspoon of water. Glaze the bagels and sprinkle with seeds. Time to bake.

 

Today, we made 16 everything bagels, 8 poppyseed, and 8 plain.

Bagels 101: Step 1 The Dough

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to make bagels all the time. Or at least pretty regularly. I even went to a King Arthur class to learn how to make Really Good Bagels.

 

Then life happened (hmmm, it happens a lot around here, I have noticed) and somehow I fell out of the habit of making bagels. I have to admit that I even sometimes BOUGHT them instead of making them from scratch. Oh, the shame!

 

A few weeks ago, I was talking to my bee farmer friend and we did talk about making bagels. He said 'I would love to learn how to make them.' I found myself replying 'No problem, I'll teach you.' Of course, life was happening for both of us, so we never managed to get together yet to actually follow through on this.

 

Yesterday, I was talking to another brilliant friend, and he helped me figure out that I could just make bagels at home, and post on my blog how to do it. Almost as good as teaching in person, with the added benefit that more people can learn from it. Aren't y'all lucky I am willing to share my master's knowledge!

 

The dough, this makes 8 bagels. I quadrupled it for my family, giving us 32 of them. Twenty-two of which have been eaten so far.

- 4 cups (18 ounces) Sir Lancelot High Gluten Flour (I used plain King Arthur Flour, and actually any white flour should do, although the higher gluten percentage the better)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon non-diastatic malt powder
- 1.5 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1.25 cups water

Combine all the ingredients and knead strongly and vigorously. The dough is a very dry dough, more so than 'standard' bread dough. Let it rise for about 30 to 40 minutes.

After rising, divide the dough in eight pieces. Roll each piece into a nice, smooth ball. The smoother the ball, the better-looking the final result will be. In our house, we rarely have perfect looking bagels, but they taste good anyway. Let those balls rest for a while, about 15 to 20 minutes. I usually put a tea towel over them to prevent them from drying out. While they are resting, prepare the water bath for boiling.

Happy New Year!

Finally getting around to pictures of our 'Chinese New Year Celebration Gingerbread House Smashing Extravazanga'. See, once in a while I DO pick up a ball I dropped.

Be careful!

 

Focus and presence.

 

Utter joy.

 

Big boom!

 

Ready, Set, Go!

 

The Protector

Giant has been protecting us from many Toilet Brush Attacks.

 

It is wonderful to have him around to keep us safe!

 

From the time he was an itty bitty puppy, he has been fascinated with toilet brushes. He will run into the bath room, grab the brush and RUN off somewhere to leisurely savour his victory on the toilet trolls.

 

The most 'amusing' episodes are when he grabs the toilet brush and then ends up in the middle of my bed, happily chewing on the brush. Um... 'No! Get your Giant butt off my bed RIGHT NOW!'

 

Anyway, I haven't been able to capture that on film, but at least I got these shots.

Today

Today, I was going to clean up my desk. I even took a 'before' picture. With the implicit understanding that I also would take an 'after' picture. I even started picking up things from my desk. It's amazing how many bright and shiny objects are on my desk.

 

Needless to say, I never made it past the first few bright and shiny objects, and then life happened. I did find my checkbook which I had misplaced. Not on the desk though, but we won't go into pesky details like that.

The joys of not being organized.

But I do have chocolate!

More Geeky Girls

 

 

 

Geeky Girls Day!

Today is Geeky Girls Day, a joint celebration of Girls Day and Square Root Day. I celebrated by making usuyaki tamago, a Japanese very thin omelet.

 

I also made pink rice, since pink is every girls favorite colour, right?

 

We had pink onigiri and used the omelettes to make Hamaguri-zushi.

 

Cute looking and good tasting. Happy Geeky Girls Day!