My teeny yoginis

I got a Yogakids dvd for Miss G at Christmas and she really likes to do it, so this evening as I was feeding Little Mister an early dinner, I let her put it on. When he got through with his dinner, he decided to get in on the action:

Shall this lead to a more mellow evening? Details to follow...

In book news, after a bit of a dry spell, I've read quite a lot over the last few days. A couple of novels (Atonement, by Ian McEwan, and a teen book by Ellen Emerson White which is a continuation of a series that I really loved when I was a teenager. Honestly, I can't remember the name of the newest book, but it's about the fictional daughter of the first female President. Goofy, but fun to revisit the characters I so liked as a teen (though I don't think she swore this much when she was writing in the 80s!). Also, just started In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan, and actually I'm still in the last quarter of The Omnivore's Dilemma, by the same author. I'm loving these books (and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and others I've been reading) and really trying to incorporate things I'm learning into my habits. It's harder than it seems like it should be.

And for any knitters out there, I've finally gotten my ravelry account up and running, and my username is BethK. It's tons of fun, but a total time eater.

Okay, the kids want a little attention now (the yoga pics were so cute I had to sit right down and blog them before I forgot!), so I'm saying buh bye!

Squash rolls

I'm obsessed with the rolls I made for Thanksgiving, making them again for Christmas, then twice more in the week afterwards! Thought I'd share the recipe, for anyone interested. (Boy, has anyone else noticed that every recipe I've posted on this blog so far has been bread? One track mind, anyone?)



Squash rolls (recipe comes from a little recipe easel book called New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant*)



1 tablespoon dry yeast (if regular active dry, bloom it in the water first, if it's instant yeast, add directly to the dry ingredients and add the water to the wet ingredients)

1/4 cup water

2/3 cup scalded milk

1 cup cooked and pureed winter squash, pumpkin, carrot or sweet potato

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup melted butter

2 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)

2-3 cups all purpose white flour (I usually use a lot closer to 2 cups here)



Combine scalded milk, squash, salt, sugar, and melted butter (and water if instant yeast is being used. If active dry yeast is being used, when the mixture is at warm room temperature add the water and yeast mixture).



In kitchenaid or large bowl, put 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups of all-purpose flour. Reserve the rest of the flour for after the liquid is added. If using instant yeast, add to the flour now.



Gradually add the liquid to the dry ingredients, adding some of the extra cup of white flour as necessary to keep the dough from being too sticky. This should be a nice soft, elastic dough and very nice to work with. Knead well.



Put the dough in a covered, greased bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and shape into rolls. I have made cloverleaf style rolls (putting three small balls in a greased muffin cup to make one roll) or just put 16 equal balls into a greased 8x8 pan. Let rise until doubled again, about 30-45 minutes.



Bake in preheated 4oo degree oven for 20 minutes if the rolls are cloverleaf style or some other kind that doesn't touch the other rolls while baking.

*If making the rolls all together squished up in the 8x8 pan, lower heat to 375 and bake for 40-45 minutes.



These are so yummy that we managed to eat three batches in less than a week (leading to a New Years' reintroduction of Weight Watchers!!). I've made them with baked, mashed butternut squash, pumpkin and sweet potato. All were very yummy. The sweet potato has a little less liquid in it, I think, so I used less flour than with the the squash or pumpkin.



Sorry I don't have a picture! Didn't think to take one before they were all eaten up with a big pot of ham and bean soup after Christmas!!



*I think I really surprised Daddyman (to say the least!) when he asked me what restaurant I would like to go to someday, expecting something world famous and haute cuisine in a major metropolis. The answer? Moosewood Restaurant in Syracuse. (Okay, okay, I also said Chez Panisse in Berkeley, but I think it's funnier if the answer is just Moosewood!)



Obligatory kid cuteness:

We still exist!!

Boxing Day breakfast, surrounded by Christmas goodies: wandmaking kit and juggling balls(Big Guy's), stacking blocks (Little Mister's, but appropriated by Miss G) and art caddy (Miss G's)

If they only got along so well the rest of the time! And if only I could sleep with not one but two squirmy kids in my bed! (Big Guy wasn't amazingly happy to have me publish this, but much happier than the one of him being a bubble monster in the bathtub with the siblings!)

I do believe that the last post I made I said something silly, like, "I'm going to blog every day in November!" Yes, it's now the first of January. Excuses are too numerous, including two different sicknesses that swept our household, a misplaced camera, broken high speed internet service, oh, and the dog ate my blogwork.

Here's to a more bloggy 2008! That's not a resolution, just a hope!

We're back!

Saturday, at Grandmom's Women's Club pancake breakfast:

So Las Vegas has come and gone, and we're back in the saddle again! The trip was too short, but it's good to be home. We went out for one of the heaviest dinners I've ever had in my life (all prime rib and cream and butter... even the salad was heavy with bacon, croutons and a dressing with grated hard-boiled egg in it. Tasty, but too much! Monday was a quiet day, mostly hanging out in the hotel room with a food hangover and reading, knitting and watching Veronica Mars dvds. The perfect day of downtime. In the afternoon, Daddyman and I went to the Star Trek experience (third time's a charm). It was pretty fun, and I have to admit that it is somewhat disconcerting to see borg drones walking around even when you know it's some guy named Brad from Poughkeepsie. (And yes, I know that ALL borg drones are some guy named Brad from Poughkeepsie.)

Monday night we went to see Mystere from Cirque de Soleil, which was impressive, though I was having the HARDEST time staying awake... the time change really caught up with me! Then Tuesday we spent most of the day travelling, and now we are settling back in to the inevitable post-trip piles of laundry and post-daylight-saving-time toddlers. Isn't it crazy how difference a simple hour makes to a one year old?

A post a day?

Though I haven't actually joined NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month, where you are supposed to post a blog every day in November), I've decided to take on the challenge (which might be extra challenging this weekend in Vegas, but we'll see!).

So on the days when I don't have super cool kid pictures or knitting content, etc. I've decided that my theme for the month of November is food. I've just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about her family's year of eating locally only, and found it quite inspirational. So I'm trying to be more aware of where my food comes from, and also of feeding my family more healthily.

My recipe for today is fast becoming my "go-to" easy bread recipe. It can be used for making quick yummy breakfast flatbread, pizzas, calzones, soft pretzels, etc. Yesterday for breakfast, we rolled out small balls of the dough and cooked some of them on a hot griddle (kind of like a pancake out of soft pizza dough). Yummy. The rest of the dough I rolled out into thin circles and froze between layers of plastic wrap to be used in the future, most likely for quick individual pizza dinners and lunchbox calzones (one of Thomas' new favorite lunches).

One of my favorite uses for this dough is to slice apples really thinly, sprinkle with a little cinnamon/sugar/cornstarch and fold into the dough like a calzone. It's a yummy, healthier option to a flaky-crusted apple turnover.

Basic Yeasted Dough
3 cups flour (I use a mix of white and whole wheat)
1 t yeast
1 t sugar
1 ¼ t salt
1 T butter (plus some for bowl)
1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

Mix together and knead until supple (however you want; standing mixer, food processor, by hand, etc.). Put in a plastic wrap-covered bowl to rise double. Punch down and use it right away or put in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it (up to a couple of days... I usually wait at least 8 hours or so for better flavor development).

I actually don't remember my baking temp and times... Probably 350 or 375, maybe for 15-20 minutes for the calzones?

Oops, I forgot...

In the land of finished objects, here is the felted trick or treat bag I made for Miss G. The pattern is "Jack" by Kate Gilbert, and I used Lion Brand Wool (I forgot the names of the colorways, but they are a rusty orange and eggplant purple). Kind of a pain to make, because I don't like intarsia, but the errors in tension, etc. were erased by the felting, which I did in our front loading washing machine, and it went just fine.

A little Halloween-y

The Doctor demonstrates use of his sonic screwdriver.

("Doctor of what?" "Of everything!" -- Doctor Who, for those not in the know!)

Kids ready for fun!

A few too many pictures of Little Mister (and these are just the ones I posted) because I think he was perhaps the cutest one year old on the planet in this costume!

With friends, ready to hit the town!

That' all folks!