I found this via Delicious Days' website. I found a great excerpt here, but you can find it slightly cheaper here. I can't wait to get this! It's the perfect combination of self-reliance, thriftiness, localvore-ness and taste that I've been looking for! I just hope that my attempt at beer won't turn out like this:
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Why turn on the oven for just one little batch of cookies or 1 loaf of bread? Get twice as much use out of the same amount of heat by baking two items that cook at the same temperature! Not only will your house smell 10 times better than one of those cheesy scented candles that smell like baked goods, but homemade gives you control over you and your family's intake of whole grains. I've found that buying a sack each of wheat germ and wheat bran and adding a shake or two to some batter is a great way to "sneak" fiber into someone's diet.
Here's two items that lend themselves nicely to the practice of "double-baking": Whole Wheat Bread & Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!
First, take out 1 stick of butter so it can soften while you get the bread going:
Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast (I've found that it's much more economical to buy a jar of yeast rather than the packets)
1/4 cup dry milk
1/4 canola oil
1/4 honey
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour (this makes the bread lighter)
1 1/4 tsp salt
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the warm water and yeast. Let it dissolve and start its thing while you combine the flours and salt in another bowl.
Pour the dry milk into the yeast mixture, then add the oil and the honey. (tip: if you add them in this order, it makes the honey slide out of the measuring cup easier)
Gently stir the mixture. Then, add the flour mixture. Stir until the dough comes together and then turn the dough onto a floured surface. Knead for 7-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it once to coat the dough. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and put in a warm place for about 50-60 minutes until the dough has doubled in size.
Lightly grease a 4X8 loaf pan. Take the dough out of the bowl and shape it into a loaf. Place it in the pan and let it rise again in a warm place until the dough is 1" over the top of the pan. (about 45 minutes, during which you can make the cookie dough)
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees, then put the pan in once the dough has risen enough. Bake for 40 minutes total, tenting with tin foil after the first 20 minutes to ensure a good crust.
Let the pan cool slightly and then invert to shake the bread out. Once it's fully cooled, I've found it keeps best when it's wrapped in foil then bagged in a bread bag.
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
1 stick butter softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 cup dry oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried fruit such as raisins, cranberries or cherries
Directions
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together (if you are co-baking the bread, just use the same bowl that you let the dough rise in.)
Add the egg and vanilla then mix well
In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients then add to the butter mixture.
Stir in the chocolate chips and dried fruit. Some people might like shredded coconut or chopped nuts too.
Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls onto a lightly greased or non-stick cookie sheet (tip: I usually save the paper that the stick of butter was in to grease the pan if needed)
Bake the cookies alongside the bread. They brown nicely in about 12 minutes and with a little practice, you can have both cookies and bread done at the same time!
On the "vida local" tip, I buy the eggs, butter and honey at local farms such as Connor's Farm in Danvers or Green Meadow Farm in Hamilton. Both places have animals on site so it's worth the extra time and gas to get out there if you make it into an outing with the kids! (Even without kids, it's really cool to see the origin of what you are eating and support local farmers in the bargain)
Great info in this NYT article about growing vegetables upside-down. I'm not sure I can trust the gutter over the back porch with the weight of a 5 gallon container of dirt though. Still, the yield seems to be better and there's some good pictures of homemade containers that look way better than those lime green topsy-turvy planters.
Those plastic containers that berries come in are too useful for the recycling bin. I'm hoping that I'll see some marigold sprouts soon!
BTW, the drain tray is the top of a supermarket sushi tray.
Fauna
Birds
Birdwatcher's Digest: They offer a list sectioned by type. As you mouseover the different birds, a thumbnail image of that bird shows up to the left.
Whatbird.com: This page has an extensive list of birds commonly found in MA with an image of the bird as well. This was how I found this bird.
Critters
AA Animal Control.com: Wow, unless I'm off in my selection of keywords (wild animal guide massachusetts), there's nothing on backyard critters that is as fun to use as the bird guides listed above. This is packed with useful information though.
Flora
There are some good iPhone apps, such as Landscaper for identifying plants by site.
I found this Flickr Group that has a tagging method to search their image database.
This blog also has a good list of book resources too.
I'm lucky to live near some conservation land and lately I've been trying to get more exercise. But some days (most days actually) the idea of taking 45 minutes to "work out" just isn't practical. So why not combine a work out with an errand? I found out that if I walk to the local grocery store (instead of getting in the car and driving 20 minutes to a big chain store), I get moving for 45 minutes, plus the extra effort of carrying the bags home, AND I get to walk past scenery like the photo above. Double Bonus!
Art is messy. Kids are messy. Put them together and you have a big (happy!) mess in the time it takes to dip a paintbrush. It's alway been the biggest clutter-generating activity in the house and I'm slowly learning how to get a handle on it.
Here's what Chloe's art corner in our new place looked like:
Everything had a place, but there were a lot of empty and half-empty containers of random items and taking anything out to use it was a bit of a process. At first I was convinced that I needed some sort of storage system, but once I cleaned the corner out, I knew I could make better use of what I already had.
The first step was to sort everything out into piles:
1: Glitter, glitter glue, glue, foam stickies and pom-poms. (crafty stuff)
2: Finished works of art (to go into portfolios)
3: Paper that could be used for drawing and painting and construction paper
4: Paints and brushes
5: Activity books
6: Potential containers
7: Stamps and ink pads
The next step involved thinking about the best way to store small items. Luckily I had a set of stacking file boxes on wheels that I wasn't using any more. They were conscripted to hold paints (on the bottom) and all the stamp stuff, small craft items, glue and scissors. Like I said in my last post, the muffin trays I used to hold the paint jars were a great way to easily move the paint jars around en masse. Put the paints in the bottom, craft stuff in the top crate and voila! Instant roll-around art cart!
Next I needed a way to contain all the paper and activity books. I simply put them in a canvas fold-out crate and had an easy way to quickly find the right material for Chloe's next masterpiece. Once I consolidated everything I had some containers left over so I put the ones that were past their prime in the recycling bin.
Via Lifehacker, this is a very useful tool: A flash-based map that tells you what's in season in a particular state in a particular month. Bonus feature! When you click on the name of a fruit or vegetable that's in season, recipes pop up! Yay!
After you've spent all those hours disentangling miles of christmas lights, you can recycle a used giftwrap tube to wind the lights up for easy(er) trimming next year. Just tape the female end of one strand to the end of the tube, then wind the lights around until all the strands are wrapped around. Now tape the male end and wrap in plastic bags for December. When you get them out again, just plug in and unravel as you circle the tree!
I say why not? I've been looking for basil plants for a week now and guess who has a great selection of organic basil, chive and parsley plants? The fancy gardening store? Super Stop and Shop? Nope. Market Basket!!
I put the new plant in the window garden in the bedroom, but I think I'll have to move it because I woke up this morning craving spaghetti for breakfast.
I found some good links for Turkey Day (or, T-Day, as it's known around here)
Need to get out of the mashed-potatoes-green been casserole-canned corn rut? The NYT on-line edition has some great ideas for sides.
Going to someone else's house and don't want to try and figure out what wine goes with stuffing? Turtle Alley, in Gloucester and Salem, sells a chocolate Turkey stuffed with nuts. How awesome is that?
And if the fam is coming over to your place, how to create the right atmosphere? (Unless, of course, your idea of ambiance is a few apple turkeys scattered about) Head on over to Design Lab, Lovejoy Design's new blog. Phoebe Lovejoy Russell has an amazing eye for color and texture and her ideas can easily be adapted to any budget.
(please note-This is only a video simulation of the reaction at our house last night)
Great way to entertain a toddler for 6 bucks!
Giftwrap, ribbons, tissue paper, bows, gift bags, what I collectively refer to as "giftcrap" felt like a huge space-hog in our new place, which mysteriously lacked closets and a hanger-rod. In the process of whittling down items and containers in order to make everything fit, I started putting all the giftcrap into one pile on the floor and then it hit me-
-Just up the road to Marblehead...
So-I'll still be around Salem a lot since, in my opinion, it's got it going on in a way that Marblehead doesn't. We found a great place for a fairly decent price and I'm going to have my own office instead of a 2X3 foot space in a corner of the living room/den/playroom now! Part of the reason I've been so lax about keeping this blog up-to-date has been the fact that: A)The Chloe has discovered online games and it's hard to say no when I see how quickly she's learning to use the computer from them, and B) by the time she's safely out of the house, I've got so much work piled up that I can't justify the time it takes to crank out these finely handcrafted bon mots :^|
Anyway, here's some moving tips tailored for moving with a toddler:
1) Make Moving Day sound like a really awesome adventure.
Maybe tell them it's like going camping in the new house and pack their sleeping bag and a canteen and flashlight for the first night. Maybe tell them they are going to "discover and explore" a brand new neighborhood in their "explorer ship" (aka moving truck)
2) Get all their friends' contact info for future playdates.
Chloe is old enough to verbalize her fears fairly well and knowing that she will be able to stay in touch with her old buddies makes it easier for her and her friends to deal with separation anxiety.
3) Let them get involved with packing and purging.
Giving a kid a damp rag and letting them clean unbreakable stuff before it goes in the box makes them feel more in control about what's happening. Giving them a box to pack favorite toys in helps too.
4) Take everyone up on those offers to "help get them out of your hair".
Because there's times when you just need to focus on what you're doing and constant pleas to play "train" with 20 cardboard boxes is a bit too much at the moment.
5) Big liquor stores are the best source for grabbing carloads of free packing boxes.
6) Got old clothes, towels, bed linens? Use them for packing padding before you recycle them! Bubblewrap and peanuts don't bio-degrade too well. Also, before you toss some old stuff, think about making something else with it, like a stuffed animal, pillow case, or quilt.
7) (Local tip) Savers, in the Danvers Market Basket plaza, is the easiest way to get rid of kid's stuff. They take toys, books, games and clothes.
8) (Set Dresser's tip) Blue painters' tape is great for labelling everything since it stands out against boxes and bags really well and won't damage wooden surfaces. Make a "packing kit" by using a box or tub and keep your markers, blue tape and packing tape in there so you can easily go from room to room.
Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's day right? Now there's finally a way to celebrate that doesn't involve green beer, shamrock shakes (which I thought was another name for a St. Pat's hangover, but whatever) and everyone's favorite; boiled cabbage and soda bread. Turtle Alley (in Salem and Gloucester) has created Irish Stout Truffles! Bring these to your Aunt Brigid's annual Boiled Banquet and you can use them as a smoke screen against being plied with whiskey and stout by your scary uncle all evening. "Oh, no more Car Bombs for me, I've still got a buzz from these truffles!"
Good luck
UPDATE: I went into Turtle Alley's Salem location today and got a 1/2 pound for $10. If anyone wants me, I'll be in a corner in a truffle coma...
They have great greeting cards and cool gee-gaws too!
Courtesy of Boing Boing.net, a mother created a stuffed toy out of her child's drawing and the result is achingly adorable. Now I am definitely going to go for that kids-quilt-from-old-baby-onesies idea I've been putting off for the past 5 months!
My downstairs neighbor's incessant smoking finally drove us to switch our bedroom with our daughter's. (A 3 year-old with a smoker's cough tends to get strange looks at the library storytime) I kept procrastinating because part of the switch involved dismantling a large handmade futon frame that was a refugee from a loft we had built in Fort Point. Even though it was an awkward monstrosity of polyurethaned pine and metal reinforcing "bandaids", it was a reminder of days without kids and spontaneous night-life.
Finally, after transferring about 2 metric tons of stuffed animals acrosss the hall and dismantling and re-mantling the crib, I decided to just tackle the damn thing with a Mikita and, two afternoon sessions later, I was triumphant and the former slumber-barge lay in pieces next to our garbage bins.
One of the side effects of being somewhat of a compulsive clutter-buster is that there always seem to be a few random items that constantly turn up in storage bins and closet bags because I just can't bear to toss them for some reason. Take, for instance, a purple and gray nylon floppy hat. If I were to actually use it as a hat, it would only make me look like the nerd I really am. But, it's a hat that was purchased for me by a friend while in Vietnam in order to help me avoid paying the "roundeye-tax" and everytime I see it, I am reminded of: 1) My friend Phong, who was the coolest guide a girl could have, 2) Travelling throughout the Mekong Delta by motorbike with my husband and 3) Touring the Cu Chi tunnels whilst in the early stages of food poisoning.(not fun, but memorable)
Long story short, I can't toss the hat, but I really wanted to get rid of the old crap lumber and recycle the brass l-brackets, so I grabbed the hat by the brim, filled it with about 5 pounds of used woodscrews and l-brackets, added a manual screwdriver and ta-da! Instant toolbag!
Found via crossing paths on Boston Mamas' blog, Cheeky Monkey Murals will do custom murals for kids' bedrooms, playrooms or wherever you wish to put one of their unique works of art. (they also do murals for businesses)
I love the style these murals are done in and the artist, Holly Johnson also does portraits of "loveys" that are a wonderful way to capture your little ones' loved ones.
You could always try the potty-caddy.
I coulda been a contender. While still pregnant, I saw an article in People about mothers who trained their kids in infancy and avoided the whole diaper scene altogether. I was all fired up to try it out with my still-theoretical spawn until I got the book out of the library that showed happy earth mommies holding their infants over porch railings and park benches, beatifically letting nature take its course. I just didn't think that would go over too well at a neighborhood barbecue or on the playground. I don't have a dog, on principle, and I grudgingly change the cat litter, so I didn't want to find myself following my own kid around with a plastic bag.
And of course, it's come to get me in the end. After a great start with the potty chart/sticker technique, I could have sworn Chloe would be trained by Thanksgiving. Then, it became Christmas, and now it's before she goes off to college, hopefully.
Of course, friends all have similar war stories about stonewalling and regression battles. And of course both nanas have started their greek chorus of "Well my kids were all trained by 2 and a half." I'll just keep up the bribery. She's bound to crack soon.
