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7am Christie's Live From Hong Kong

Diaper for Bunny

they make it look so easy!

Pig

M has learned how to use the camera and this is one of her recent pictures.  Makes me laugh.

Slide Girl

Previously anti-slide child has done a 180.  Loving the slides now AND she can climb the ladder all by herself!  Blame it on R being in Hong Kong - the camera has started coming with us to the playground so he will recognize his daughter upon return (ok it's only a week, but still).

she's a worker, this one

This and That

M got her first haircut(s) last week.  First, I had an impulsive moment while she was brushing her teeth and 'neatened' up some of the ends.  On Sunday, beloved Auntie D did a wonderful job cleaning things up and our girl now has a fresh bob.  When we visit R's family there is a high quotient of paparazzi (M is Angelina, of course) - which was full-on during the salon session.  There was so much going on I'm not sure M was even fully aware of what was happening, which might have been for the best... but it didn't hurt that Auntie D is a professional...  The cut is so sassy and perfect for Ms. M that I hardly spent a moment mourning the growing up of our baby.

The before:

The after:

Cute top, no?  You might be seeing many more in this style.  I made it!  Finally a pattern easy enough to bang out in an evening (or two depending on what else is going on) AND with a sweet fit.  The pattern is from Heidi and Finn (purchased 'here') and aside from a few minor typos within the instructions I couldn't be happier with the experience, start to finish.

I had been using a similar pattern (seen in action, below) but wasn't as happy with the finished product - though amazingly these early dresses still fit her (like shirts now - I'll get some pictures of that soon).  

can't believe this is the same baby!

Also on the making front, I've (re) discovered the Tassajara Bread Book.  This book was (and is) a bible of sorts to my mother for making bread.  My wham bam Bittman food processor method doesn't have much in common with the whole body/spirit approach of bread making described in Tassajara but I've already found some other recipes I love.  In particular the Haver Cookies.  Fruit juice sweetened and very easy to make.  And - loved by M and friends!

1/2 cup currants or rasins

1 1/4 cup rolled oats

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons corn oil (coconut oil sub might be nice)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

5 - 7 tablespoons apple juice

(Makes about 24

Preheat oven to 350)

Soak rasins in water for 1/2 hour.  Combine oats, cinnamon and salt.  Add oil, stir thoroughly and set aside.  Mix flours and juice.  Add the oat mixture and then the drained raisins.  If the mixture does not hold together add extra teaspoons of oil or juice until it does.

Shape the mixture into a big ball and place it on a large greased baking sheet.  Roll the dough with a heavy rolling pin into a large rectangle 1/4 inch thick.  Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into squares or triangles.  

Bake the Havers at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes.  Do not brown.  Let cool and remove from pan.  Store in a tin.

yum

Good Morning

accidental "water table" from Ikea - perfect

grass for the cats down the hall

One Year Ago

Distraction

a bear, really

Mastering the art of distraction seems to be invaluable when parenting a toddler.  Recently, I have had some challenges in this area.  Maybe I’m just incredibly dense but I think I finally got it that once the whining turns to wailing and the fidgeting turns to thrashing, the department of reason has closed up shop, full stop.  This is when - birdies! airplanes! look a taxi! a horse! snacks! do you want a cookie?! here, take my phone! facetime with Papou?! - come into play. However, sometimes nothing works and I feel like doing some thrashing and wailing of my own. I find myself wondering if I should have pursued a career in musical theater to prepare for raising this spritely ball of wills and emotion.  Speaking of musical theater, the endless singing of songs seems to be taking hold.  In her small sweet voice she’s started singing along with many of the favorites.  And this, my friends, makes it all possible.

Delicious

Brioche, my love

So I've been trying out some bread recipes lately.  My very-first-ever attempt (Mark Bittman's Sandwich Bread) came out pretty dense due to the whole wheat pastry flour I used (don't use pastry flour to make bread).  My second attempt (Jim Lahey via Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread) was closer to a win although the fact that it was 'rising' on a day that we had our windows replaced (making the apartment cold and drafty) was not in my favor - and it came out a little flat.  However, since the dough was resting for almost 24 hours it came out tasting like sour dough - which was a happy accident.  And the crust was delightfully crusty.

My most recent experiment was brioche.  Brioche, I like.  My recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman's, as published in How to Cook Everything - a few changes noted below.  So easy and so delicious.

1 3/4 c white flour
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour (fresh grind, if possible) (Bittman uses all white)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 c maple syrup (Bittman uses sugar)
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted cold butter cut into chunks, plus more for greasing the bowl and pans
3 eggs plus 2 yolks (Bittman uses one less yolk - I misread the recipe)
1/2 c milk plus 2 tbs
1/3 cup water plus more if necessary

1. Combine the flour, salt and yeast in the container of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process for 5 seconds. Add the cold butter, eggs (saving 1 yolk for later) and maple syrup and process for 10 seconds.  With the machine running, pour (don't drizzle) 1/2 cup milk and 1/3 cup water through the feed tube.  Process for about 30 seconds, then remove the cover.  The dough should be very sticky, almost like batter.  If it is too dry, add water 1 tablespoon at a time and process for 5 or 10 seconds after each addition.  If it is too wet, which is almost impossible (per Bittman), add another tablespoon or two of flour and process briefly.  My processed dough had decent sized chunks of butter here and there and this was just fine.
2. Grease a large bowl with softened butter and scrape the dough into it.  Cover in plastic wrap.  I made my dough at night, so at this point I put the covered bowl of dough into the fridge.  12 hours later, I took it out and let it set on the counter for about 2 hours.  Then, using some flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands and surfaces, make two loaves.  I wrapped up one loaf and froze it for later.  I put the other loaf on a greased cookie sheet, covered it and let it set on the counter to rise again for about 1.5 hours (Bittman says 2 hours but I was out of time).
3. Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Mix the remaining egg yolk and 2 tablespoons milk and brush the loaf or loaves (if you are not freezing one) with this mixture.  Bake the brioche for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

What put my brioche eating experience over the top was adding a spoonful of sheep's milk yogurt and a drizzle of dark maple syrup on top.  Incredible.  M quickly fashioned a shorthand request for more bites of this heavenly concoction, "go-durt!" (as in yogurt).

Loss and Gain

The loss of my iPhone has changed things.  I miss the camera like crazy, but part of me is embracing the absence of constant distraction from the emails, apps, random web searches, etc.  For now, I'm using my old Blackberry, ahem, Crackberry.  Having never tried crack, I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm going to say that the Blackberry is like a mildly addictive coffee drink compared to the potency of the iPhone 4.  Even to call the Blackberry a gateway drug is giving it too much credence.  The tricky thing is how 'clean' the iPhone addiction is.  You are hardly aware of how omnipresent it is, until it's gone.  The blog is suffering, I know.  However, the me-being-more-present thing is good.

We took the side off M's crib on Tuesday, turning it into a 'toddler bed'.  She was thrilled and hopped around on it for what seemed like an hour chanting "jzump! jzump! jzump!"  So cute.  As the crib is from Ikea, it should not have come as a surprise that the rail thing that I bought separately (not from Ikea) did not work properly with the crib.  Since M can be a pretty restless sleeper, I had to come up with a quick alternate solution to keep her from falling out on a regular basis.  I was very pleased with my solution which was to attach 4 ties to a doubled piece of cotton fabric.  The fabric is pulled tight across the front of the crib and tied on to the bars at the side.  At the bottom, it's pulled beneath the mattress and tied off.  At the top the ties can slide up (for when she's sleeping) or down (for when she's playing - shown above).  When it's slid up it comes about 10 inches above the mattress but it's still easy for her to push it down when she intentionally wants to get out.  I know how picky (for good reason) crib related safety stuff can be, but this feels like a very good (and safe) solution for our particular situation.

I'm also experimenting with some bread making... Anything to justify using the cinnamon sugar butter I bought today at the farmer's market....