Smooth Sailing

I'm not sure what compelled me, except perhaps a sense of curiosity, but I made yogurt from scratch this week.  There had been an article in the NYTimes which spurred my interest and so I got the ingredients and got to work Thursday night (there were even reader tips to help out.)  It really is a little like magic--heat some milk (tip:  rub ice on the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching), add a little plain yogurt, keep it warm a long time (tip: turn on oven to 200 for 2 minutes, turn off, leave yogurt there wrapped in towel with oven light on), and then chill it.  Voila!  Some of the freshest, tangiest, smoothest yogurt I have ever had.  It's perfect with honey or jam, or just plain if you like tart yogurt.  Mine is even lactose-free, with lactose-free milk and yogurt to start.

And it was perfect timing:  Mama had a wisdom tooth removed on Friday.  The procedure went well--easier than she expected and had been lead to believe by well-meaning friends with horror stories.  But she can't exactly chew.  And the yogurt has been perfect!  In less than a day, we have eaten almost 8 cups of it.

I doubt we'll eat that much every day, but I know I'll be making this again.

Oh, and the Tooth Fairy brought Mama an extra-special treat, the Lego Death Star kit.

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Homemade Yogurt

• 2 quarts whole milk, the fresher the better
• ¼ cup heavy cream (optional)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons plain whole milk yogurt with live and active cultures

1. Rub an ice cube over the inside bottom of a heavy pot to prevent scorching (or rinse the inside of the pot with cold water). Add milk and cream, if using, and bring to a bare simmer, until bubbles form around the edges, 180 to 200 degrees. Stir the milk occasionally as it heats.
2. Remove pot from heat and let cool until it feels pleasantly warm when you stick your pinkie in the milk for 10 seconds, 110 to 120 degrees. (If you think you’ll need to use the pot for something else, transfer the milk to a glass or ceramic bowl, or else you can let it sit in the pot.) If you’re in a hurry, you can fill your sink with ice water and let the pot of milk cool in the ice bath, stirring the milk frequently so it cools evenly.
3. Transfer 1/2 cup of warm milk to a small bowl and whisk in yogurt until smooth. Stir yogurt-milk mixture back into remaining pot of warm milk. Cover pot with a large lid. Keep pot warm by wrapping it in a large towel, or setting it on a heating pad, or moving to a warm place, such as your oven with the oven light turned on. Or just set it on top of your refrigerator, which tends to be both warm and out of the way.
4. Let yogurt sit for 6 to 12 hours, until the yogurt is thick and tangy; the longer it sits, the thicker and tangier it will become. (I usually let it sit for the full 12 hours.) Transfer the pot to the refrigerator and chill for at least another 4 hours; it will continue to thicken as it chills.

Tip

• If you want to make Greek yogurt, set a colander or sieve over a bowl and line the colander with cheesecloth. Take your finished yogurt, either before or after you've chilled it, pour the yogurt into the colander, and let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 to 6 hours to drain. (Keep an eye on it, and when it looks thick enough to your liking, transfer it to a jar; if it becomes too thick, stir some of the whey back in.) Reserve remaining whey for smoothies, soups or lemonade, or for marinating poultry.

Blizzard Day

Today . . . .

• Bud had a fever and spent much of the time napping . . . 
• except when he was building a Lego (The Tower of Orthanc) from the Magic Trunk;
• Sis also had a Lego (the Corsairs' ship from LOTR);
• but she also spent a ton of time outside with the neighbor girl across the street sledding down neighbor's yard, working on yesterday's fort, building a tunnel in the snowbank, making snowballs, drinking homemade hot chocolate, playing with the other kids from the cul de sac;
• we watched Guardians of the Galaxy, again (we watched it and Maleficent the last couple of nights);
• Bud and Mama played Infinity, then Sis and Mama played Infinity;
• I crocheted using the Crazy Stitch a blanket for the downstairs cats;
• I snuggled with Patron, who slept behind my knees on the couch;
• Mama cleared the driveway and sidewalk with snowblower and cleared off our cars;
• I made chicken stock from yesterday's baked chicken and then made chicken noodle soup;
• we all nibbled on yesterday's ANZAC biscuits (which are delicious but too spread out--something went wonky with the recipe; I'll post it later);
• we talked to Gommie about her injection (for her newly-diagnosed spinal stenosis; it went very well) and then about Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, which she is studying up on to be ready for her visit in two weeks;
• and we're slowly getting ready to resume a somewhat limited schedule tomorrow--Sis will go to school (which is delayed two hours) and Bud will be home with me trying to get better; only Mama will do her usual work thing.

So, a pretty good blizzard for us.  Besides if there had been a ton more snow, Mama would have had a lot more work and we probably would've gotten stir crazy from more days in the house.  This was just about perfect.

Today

Bud was photographing his own stop-action Lego SW movie

We did some sewing--this started as an owl and became a bear.  Sis and Bud made cloaks and wrist warmers for their stuffies.

Mostly for Pop and Gommie, who will notice that the fence surrounding the mailbox is no longer visible!

Too icy even to make snow angels.

While the kids painted, I did a pen and crayon thing, inspired by Heather Bruggeman's meditative art in her current workshop, Hibernate.

From left to right:  Bud's abstraction, Sis's night forest scene (the moon is covered by Bud's paper), and Sis's "picture of happiness."

GOOEY CAKE!!!!

Gooey Cake

Often served at church, this is Paula Deen's recipe

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. 

Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Birthday Surprise

Saturday morning the kids delivered their birthday surprise:  the Who-verse had invaded our Lego Christmas Village!   Daleks, sting rays, Adipose, Slitheen, Racnoss--all of them made by the kiddos, except the Silence.  They also had Vastra the Silurian, Arthur the horse, and even the T.A.R.D.I.S.  All so clever, so creative, such a wonderful gift.  

Multi-colored Daleks (and one beheaded civilian!)

The giant flying "sting ray" from "Planet of the Dead" with Vastra standing beside the T.A.R.D.I.S in the lower right corner 

A Racnoss

A Slitheen and two baby Slitheens

Little white Adipose

The Silence is ice skating

Summer Fun 2013: King of Weekends

This weekend, we went to NYC.

Saturday:

"My little-town blues are melting away."

We stayed on the 42nd floor of the kids' favorite hotel.  

We were in town to see The Lion King, the kids' first Broadway show.  It was wonderful!  Sis liked Rafiki, Bud liked Zazu.  And they "stage doored" afterwards and got autographs of young Simba,  young Nala, Mufasa, Zazu, and others.

Sunset over NJ and the Hudson River.

Here you can see Sis and Mama under the awning of Virgil's, where we got BBQ takeout for dinner.

There is a special AG package at the hotel.  Felicity got her own bed that she also got to take home.

After sunset, we roamed Times Square, perhaps the most crowded I've ever seen it.  And remember, I lived there--19 years ago!

The M&M store and the Hershey store are their favorites.

I liked our late-night Junior's snack--Devil's Food Cheesecake, Strawberry Shortbread, poundcake, and Egg Creams!

Sunday:

We went to the "Art of the Brick" show at Discovery Times Square.  Those are all Legos, folks!  The artist Nathan Sawaya reproduces masterpieces in bricks!

I loved this one!

Pretend the dino is moving, not that it's a bad picture, please.

 
He also does several of his own sculptures, often with empty cavities, like this one.  Amazing and inspiring.

We finished our visit at the Visitor's Center because the kids always like to see the New Year's Eve ball.

'Tis (Almost) the Season

Christmas lights were up around town a week before (an early!) Thanksgiving.  Target was full of holiday cheer before we even celebrated Halloween!

But Thanksgiving is (thankfully) over and we're moving on to the next holiday.  Mama brought up our Lego Christmas village set so Sis and Bud could set it up on our dining room/playroom table.  Then she brought out this year's holiday building, which they all had fun putting together.

And I picked up a crochet project that I haven't worked on in almost exactly four years:  Mama's Christmas stocking.  Thankfully, I'd made notes on the pattern, noting the size of the crochet hook and how I'd altered the pattern when I made Sis and Bud's stockings.  I loved working on the stocking while listening to Mama and the kids.

And to Christmas music!

Because the holidays have started in our house.

And we're all very happy and excited.

Lego Lovefest

Bud's own Nutcracker

On Saturday, while I rested in the hotel from our long OSV excursion and rested up for our afternoon trip to  the historical society, Mama and the kids headed to the Lego KidsFest (and another coincidence:  My Little Chickadees' Shelley was there with her children!  You can see her pictures of the event there.).  And they had a very grand time building tall towers, constructing pieces of a mural, admiring models of various pop culture icons such as Chewbacca and Hagrid and Lightning McQueen (which weighed in at 3 tons!!!), being awestruck by a huge Hogwarts Castle and amused by an igloo with bits of lots of other sets altogether, making and racing cars on a ramp (just like the one at their birthday!), being mesmerized by a Rube Goldberg-esque soccer ball machine, creating something to put on the large map of the USA, and getting freebie after freebie--Ninjago spinners, Ninjago wristbands, Christmas tree sets, mini-Night Bus, pamphlets with instructions for other sets, etc etc etc.  And they weren't even there the whole time, coming back to the hotel early to have lunch (takeout from the incomparable Black-Eyed Sally's, including fried pickles, fried catfish, jambalaya, red beans and rice, collard greens, and cheese grits, all the best I've had here in the North, for truth be told, traditional New England cookery is not all that tempting) and go to the historical society.

And so what have we done since then?  Yep, Legos.

Green-Letter Day

As in the green ink of the official Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry acceptance letter.

Because today we all watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

(After our friends from Philly visited, no mean feat for two very eager kids.  But they enjoyed talking about HP and Legos in the meantime.)

Covering the bed with a tablecloth, we camped out with all manner of sugary and crunchy snacks, from popcorn and animal cookies to fruit jellies and chocolate bars.  We saved the jelly beans for the Hogwarts Express scene when Harry and Ron ate Bertie Bott's beans.  They'd even brought their Gryffindor cloaks to wear but decided to eat instead (and there is a no-eating-in-costumes rule).

And we loved every minute of it.  Bud gleefully called out everything he recognized, from Prof. McGonagall as a cat to the acceptance letter, from the Leaky Cauldron to Ollivander's, from the Sorting Hat to the Mirror of Erised, and everything in between.  Sis sat much more quietly, taking it all in.

They marveled at the glimmering enchanted Great Hall, at the fast-paced Quidditch Game, at the magic of the Cloak of Invisibility.  Even the scary bits--the screaming book, the bloodied unicorn, and of course He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named--didn't phase them too much.  Though, Bud later admitted he was surprised by all the explosions in the giant wizards' chess game.

So thrilled were they with the film that they raced straight downstairs to build all the sets in Legos, happily planning the cupboard under the stairs of the Dursleys' house and then helping Mama with the Diagon Alley set.

It was indeed a magical movie experience.

(Though, they were glad to have read the book first, they said.)

Legopalooza!

There were Legos! And a ramp/racetrack! And cupcakes!

And lots of fun with friends!

A big thank you to Mama Teacher and Babysitter, for all their generous assistance! The party literally couldn't have happened without you. I especially am grateful to Mama Teacher for running errands beforehand and being my stand-in, as it were, during the set-up and hosting of the event.

Of course, Mama Hungry envisioned and executed the whole thing: Lego stickers to decorate favor boxes! Minifigures! Freebuild! Mini-kits! Build-a-car! A race-ramp! Stackable Lego candies for the cupcakes! It really was imaginative, creative, and different.

My contribution? The idea of the large cardboard bricks for those not interested in Legos. Oh, and the text of the invitation. I did order the cupcakes and handle RSVPs. I also chose the "Glee" songs for the playlist.

Together we made a great birthday party. The kids--I'd say about 22+ in all--had fun going from station to station making different Lego creations and piling them in their decorated Chinese take-out containers (oh, those were my idea too!). The parents helped. Then they raced their cars, built gigantic cardboard brick towers, compared elaborate house constructions, and eventually descended into chaos running back and forth across the wide-open church hall (yes, we had this at church; we would have been crazy to have it at home.) They gorged themselves on cupcakes--chocolate with chocolate frosting and vanilla with strawberry mousse frosting, both decorated with those special stackable sweet/tart Lego candies (that almost nobody ate!). Sis and Bud enjoyed seeing all their school friends and especially gravitated to their bus buddies.

(Though, as you'll remember, no one seems to open presents at parties up here or these days or something, so we have a stockpile--embarrassingly, almost 40, at 20 for each--to open this afternoon. Probably best we didn't do it there.)

The kids were all still going strong as we began cleaning up. I finally gave up (my back did pretty well for almost 2 1/2 hours on a hard floor during only my fourth outing, with only two couch breaks in the back) and was brought home. The clean-up was already well-underway--many hands make light work.

So, a big, grateful round of applause for all the hands that went into the making of the party. I guess, in a way, we were all our own little Legos, put together in a great creation!

And a very happy 6th-birthday party to Sis and Bud!

Legos Make it All Better

There has been tension around the house, frustration perhaps, especially for Bud, who seems overwhelmed by everything. And so we were talking about it yesterday. He's sad that I can't play downstairs, sad that he can't be home with me instead of going to school. I told him I wasn't having fun without him, that in fact I was just home alone.

"But you have the cats," Sis pointed out.

"No, the cats are in their room for when Nanny comes and y'all get home."

They were both disturbed that I might be lonely.

So they've been bringing me toys to play with. Yesterday, it was one Lego mini-figure from Sis and Bud's stuffed penguin Tango, all dressed up. Today it's a fairy playland plus about 10 monster-ish Lego figures. It's all very sweet.

But I'm also glad they are still having fun and playing downstairs and not moping up here with me all day. Even if I miss them . . . .

A Lego Widow

Some women's spouses abandon them for various sports seasons.

Mine is now completely overrun, not by March Madness, but by Legos.

Because, in our house, they're not just for children anymore.

Mama, to put it mildly, is now obsessed with Legos. (I mean, she just emailed me this!) She is planning, in detail--down to the cake construction (Oreos on top of little loaves and then frosted in primary colors!), activities ("I'm going to build a racing ramp!" right after she orders about 5000 Lego bricks for the party guests to play with!!), and favors (bucket o' bricks for each child, from the aforementioned stockpile)--the Legomania birthday party for the kids. In July. And she's been researching the Lego birthday party scene, even calling the stores to see how they used to do it. Did you know there is a make-your-own-Lego-party kit? But she's gotten way beyond that. She's also signed Bud up for Lego camp (Sis was offered it but chose Girl Scouts), ordered them both the children's magazine, considering subscribing to the adult magazine, and reading the parent website. She picked up several sets on sale at the toy store and is now tracking future sales. And future releases, informing me what is coming: Vikings!! Pirates of the Caribbean!! A Lighthouse!! The three of them do Legos every time they are together, not only building sets but creating their own with generic bricks. Mama is rationing the sets to one a month. I think Harry Potter's Diagon Alley is next. Their dream set: the Death Star!

Of course, the kids are right there with her. Together, they've built several big sets, following instructions for 8 year olds. They concentrate, problem solve, create, imagine, and then play with the result. And then they daydream about more . . . . Both Bud and Sis chose Lego sets (the castle and X-Wing respectively) for their reward at Spring Break if their charts are complete, as well as mini-figures for their mini-rewards along the way. And they are doing everything on their chart almost everyday, even trying to earn bonus "stars." Bud even goes to bed with the Lego catalog each night.

Where does that leave me? Watching. Or relaxing somewhere else. Enjoying their joy together. Encouraging their shared hobby. Appreciating the skills involved. Marveling at what Lego has thought of next. I was never interested in Legos as a child, while Mama apparently built garages for her Barbies, and I'm still not great at following a set (I can make up my own little things, though).

Mama asked, perhaps concerned about her new addiction, how she knows what's too much? I said don't spend more on this year's birthday than we spent last year. And if she comes home with a set she normally wouldn't be interested in at all, say a police or construction set, I'll know shes just buying the Legos to smell the plastic. Otherwise, there are worse hobbies--have fun!

So far, so good.

Especially because there is no off-season.

Legoland, CT

We are completely Lego-looney over here. It started with a few simple Star Wars sets before Christmas and morphed into a giant Hogwarts Castle for Christmas.

And today, while I walked off back stress, the kids and Mama actually built the huge 1290+ piece multi-building set, complete with little drumsticks, torches, retracting stairs, spinning knights, owls, dementors, Sorting Hat, and a Cloak of Invisibility. Sis put together the Great Hall, which she kept calling a church, being unfamiliar with the story. Bud built the wing with the secret library. They both made all the little people. Mama tried to keep track of it all.

For hours, literally four hours, they followed instructions and manipulated the little pieces, studied the building, and made up little stories best they could. Now it's done and installed on our dresser.

But . . . when they went to get my prescriptions, they came home with more Legos! This time, both Star Wars and Hagrid's Hut!

The Unbearable Heaviness of Legos

Bud loves Legos. He loves putting them together; he loves playing with them. And then he loves taking some of them apart and doing it all over again.

Except when they come apart when he doesn't want them to. Which they do regularly.

And then he's sad. And upset. And frustrated. Because he can currently only put them together sequentially from the beginning, not in trouble-shooting mode.

Then I'm sad. And upset. And frustrated. Because he brings me these half-broken, fragile Lego models with pieces missing and I don't know what to do. Literally. See, I'm not very good with spatial reasoning, never did well at those tests where you see a diagram and have to predict the shape, can't read a map at a glance, never turn the right way, can't fit that extra bit into the dishwasher, luggage, or fridge. I can stare at those Lego models and not be able to follow the diagrammatic instructions nor even replicate one side based on its symmetrical counterpart.

And he looks at me so disappointedly, realizing I'm not the amazing, fix-it-all Mommy he thought, because I get just as frustrated and am just as helpless. And just as disappointed that there are increasingly things that I can't fix for him. Maybe if he weren't there, weren't waiting expectedly, I might be able to figure out the construction in time, with practice. But not under pressure, not with an impatient and increasingly disappointed audience. Not with all the emotion hanging in the balance.

So we both just end up in tears.