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!

I love fall!

Busy day of playing, baking, cleaning, knitting and visiting the pumpkin patch!

Miss G had a ball at the pumpkin patch, and so did Little Mister, though it's harder to tell from the pictures, because almost all of them are of the back of his head!! He thought it was hilarious to walk away from me, and if I walked in front of him, he just turned in the other direction! Got a few, though.

In knitting news, I'm doing a some felting projects right now; the sweaters for the kids are temporarily on hold. I'm about 2/3 done with a felted halloween tote for Miss G ("Jack" by Kate Gilbert) . I hate intarsia work, and because it is stockinette stitch, it is all curly and awful looking in its current state, but I have faith that once it's sewn together and felted, it will look cute.

I finished a felted box from Mason Dixon knitting. In the box is the yarn I have bought (from a favorite blogger, the heathen housewife!) online from etsy. This yarn will be (eventually) my first pair of socks.

Today was also a baking day... lovely cool weather for making YUMMY sandwich bread. Here's the recipe, fyi. It's from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking book. I mixed and kneaded it in the kitchenaid, let it rise twice (second time in the pan) and baked it for about 35-40 minutes at 350, covering with foil after the first 20 minutes so the top wouldn't get too dark. Yummy!

100% Whole Wheat
Sandwich bread

3 c (12 oz) wh. wheat flour
3 T sugar
heaping ½ C (1 ¼ oz) potato flakes
¼ C (1 oz) dried milk
1 ¼ t salt
2 ½ t instant yeast
2 T (1 oz) orange juice
1 C lukewarm water
4 T butter, cut into 6 pcs

And finally, a face I can't resist!!

Later!

Those crazy kids...

Naps are nice, but getting up is better!

Birds in their little nests agree!

My little cover girl...

Corners of my home

I've been reading the archives of a fun blog by a crafter in Maine, and I've really enjoyed a flickr group she started called "Corners of my home" where she and others post photos of lovely, loved corners of their homes. I've been in a real funk, home-wise, feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of mess that two children under the age of four (plus two adults and a nine year old) can make. For a little while, I've just thrown up my hands and let the mess go. But as I looked at those lovely little pieces of other people's homes (crafty, vintage, lovely) I was struck with the feeling that I had NO corners that currently inspire me. Which is a problem. So I've finally been motivated to give the house some attention, slowly but surely. And so here are a couple of little corners of my home that at least don't widly irritate me right now! (Okay, that's not the greatest recommendation ever!) It was really rainy today, and I did this in the late afternoon, so the light isn't the greatest.

My bedroom drives me crazy right now because ALL of the children love to play there and make big messes. I make my bed (almost) every day, and it gets unmade, rumpled, crumpled. It's not as though we live in a tiny house that lacks for play room, so WHY do they insist on playing in the one room that is theoretically adult space??! But I do love my pretty little LL Bean end tables and try to create a nice little reading and listening spot there. There would be a basket of knitting on the lower shelf if Little Guy wouldn't, well, eat it or something!

The dining room is one of my favorite rooms visually -- I wish we used it more! But it's one of the fun rooms to decorate... when we decorated for Halloween during family home evening a couple of weeks ago, we found we were out of spider web, so Big Guy went to town creating his own with black yarn, and I think I like it better than the pre-fab stuff!

This corner of the living room is a favorite of mine because of the old wooden icebox, which after many years of hints, outright request and begging, my dear sweet Mom gave to me. It was in my house when I was a small child in Maine, and I remember opening the doors and playing with it when I was tiny. When we moved to St. Thomas it went to live with Nana for many years, then down to Florida with Mom when she left the island. So it is my favorite piece of furniture anyway, and then combine that with the fact that it my yarn storage, and it becomes my absolute favorite! (I have this fairly silly notion that I'm going to keep my stash no bigger than what can go in or on this icebox... we'll see.)

Finally, a few pictures of the kiddos.

Miss G at gymnastics (inside on a rainy day through a window, so please excuse the horrible picture quality!)

Big Guy channeling the spirit of Jack Benny. (Okay, it's very late at night and for some reason I can't get the picture to stand up for me. So forgive the crick in the neck I'm giving you!)

Little Mister.

See you later!