TWD: Delayed Cranberry Upside-Downer

I made this a couple weeks ago when it was scheduled to be made, and thought it was great!  I shared it at our first presidency meeting for my new calling as Relief Society secretary.  Many thanks to Sabrina for her perfect fall pick. I was so glad I still had cranberries in the freezer from last year's post-Thanksgiving cranberry blowout sale at Aldi where I got 4 or 5 bags for a dollar. Sweet (or tart?) deal! 

I used peach jam that didn't quite set up (peach sauce?) instead of currant jelly for the glaze on top and it was a nice mix of summer-fall flavors. 

I decided to cut back a bit on TWD. I will still be involved, just doing maybe baking 2 weeks each month as opposed to all 4.  I do want to make the Tarte Fine that was for this week and will probably post that when it's baked. It sounds too good to skip over! 

Here are October's recipe titles and page numbers:
October 5, 2010- Double Apple Bundt Cake on pages 184 and 185.
October 12, 2010- Fold-Over Pear Torte on pages 348 and 349
October 19, 2010-Caramel Pumpkin Pie on pages 322 and 323.
October 26, 2010- All-American, All-Delicious Apple Pie on pages 300-302.

Which ones should I do?!  I think I'll do the apple tarte fine this coming week to make up for skipping it this week and then I'll make the pear torte and pumpkin pie and sit that last week of October out.   

Jacob turns 3!

Last week on the 20th Jacob turned 3. I have decided that when the oldest child has a birthday the mother should celebrate a little in her heart. It is, after all, the day that she became a mother, so it is a big deal. All day I went back and forth in my thoughts, "is it possible for me to have been a mother for 3 years already?" and "a lot sure happens in three years!" We had a great day. Jacob got to pick all the meals for the day (well, except for Dad's lunch since that was at the Public Finance Free Lunch Seminar while he was at school) and he sure has great taste: blueberry flaxseed waffles for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and chicken sandwiches for dinner. His cake was a yellow dump truck that was pretty fun to piece together. My two favorite parts were the license plate that said JACOB3 and the windshield wipers made out of tiny slivers of black licorice.

Since I had rehearsal on Monday night, Tuesday night we had a little get together with some friends and neighbors. We served the rest of the cake, ice cream cones, a few kinds of cupcakes, and I made what I called "stoplight crackers" - the smallest part of a graham cracker with yellow frosting on it, topped with a red, yellow and green M&M. The table was decorated with a road that I made out of construction paper, and Jacob's cars and trucks gave a nice visual effect of rush hour on the road. Happy Birthday, Jacob! We're so glad you're in our family. And happy half birthday to Miss Rebecca - we sang to her as well. Two kids in nursery for a few months...pretty exciting! Enjoy the pictures & video!

Tour de Troit

So, last Saturday, Jacob and I rode in the Tour de Droit. It is basically a ride, about 30 miles, through Detroit. It starts at the old train depot, and just wanders through the city. About 3,200 people do it. It was amazing. Jacob was a champ for the whole several hours it took, and we had a great time. It was definitely a ride, with a police escort, all roads were closed down, and everyone took their time. I think we averaged between 10 and 12 miles an hour. The vast majority of people were on regular mountain bikes with nubby tires. It was a pretty gentle ride. I would encourage anyone in the metro Detroit area to do it next year, as I plan on doing it.

Here is Jacob, getting ready for the ride.

Here is Jacob on the bike in front of the train depot, ready to get started.

Here we are, in the middle of downtown Detroit, riding.

The ride went on to, around, and off of Belle Isle. It was a very pleasant place. Here is Jacob, leaning, pondering the skyline.

Jacob and I on the island. Note, it was a bit cold.

We passed several union related buildings. This was the only one I stopped for.

This is part of the Heidelberg Project, where a guy does crazy things to houses. They were pretty neat.

You cant see them so well, but, these are more arty type houses.

Here we are at the end of the ride. Still happy.

And finally, two videos I shot of the event:

Dance Floor

So, our big screen TV is broken.  Or, I guess, more accurately, Stacey found a broken big screen TV by the dumpster (where all the good stuff is).  I have been meditating on what to do with it, and my first idea has been to use it as a dance floor for my children.  So far, it is a success.  They like the pulsating lights when they move even a little bit on it.  Any other ideas on what to do with it would be appreciated (other than sell it for parts, or something boring). 

I would love to burn it or blow it up or shoot it to bits, but, Michigan is somewhat constraining in having that kind of fun.

Me

Theres really no denying I was such a cute little boy.

In Review

I have wanted to do this for a while, but, couldn't because Google Video had deleted some of our previous anniversary videos. But, without further delay, here are videos representing the entirety of our married life:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Lawyers in the Mist

So, I am sitting in on a corporate tax law class at the law school. It has been interesting to sit amongst the lawyers, and observe them (maybe one day I shall write a book, “Lawyers in the Mist”). Today, a fire alarm went off at the law school. The professor looked around, and asked what the students usually do during a fire alarm, and some students had some comments. He told us to hold on, while he figured out what was going on. He walked out the door, and came back without an answer of what to do. We dithered for another minute or so, with students talking back and forth, and the professor not knowing what to do. Then, he said, “Well, I guess when the fire alarm rings, the “reasonable man” would leave the building.” So we left. As we left, he noted that if this happened at a law firm, he suggested just closing your door and continuing to work. It was amazing.

Stuff, mostly Traverse City

So,  we have had such an eventful last little while in our family.  Here are some assorted pictures, in no particular order, to give you an idea of what we have been up to.  In short, last week, we went to Traverse City, Michigan, and spent Thursday-Saturday up there. Then, this last Thursday, Stacey and I went on a cruise (as part of my mother's birthday gifts to Stacey, she got us this cruise).  So, here are some pictures of all this:

his is Stacey and the kids in front of the General Store up by a lighthouse up by Traverse City.  It was a pleasant little General Store.  We bought taffy, which you can see in Jacob's hand

Up by Traverse City there are some dunes, the Sleeping Bear Dunes.  They were pretty fun to play on. In climbing up them, Jacob was not a big fan of climbing up, but he loved going down.  When asked if he liked the dunes, he was a little conflicted.  But, if you split the quesiton, and asked if he liked going up, he would say emphatically, "No".  If you asked if he liked going down, he would yell, "Yes".  So, he likes the easy parts of things.  He takes after his father.

Here I am jumping into the sand on the dune.  It took a long time to fall.  That means either it was a long drop, or I fell very slowly (hat tip, Lewis Carroll).

On the way up to Traverse City, we stopped at a little zoo.  It was a small little zoo, but the perfect size to break up the trip into two pleasantly little segments, instead of one long drive.  Here is R and Stacey in a little car at the zoo.

Here are J and R rolling around in the sand at the dunes.

Here is R trying to touch a tortoise at the zoo.  It would have been so easy, if the tortoise had not been so darned fast.

Traverse City had a very pleasant place to get ice cream called Moomers.  It was very good ice cream, not too, too expensive, and it was adjacent to a dairy farm, where presumably the milk comes from.  They have an observation deck with picnic tables so you can eat your ice cream and watch the cows at the same time.  It was very pleasant, until, by watching the cows, you notice incidence of liquid coming from the cows that is not milk.

Here is Stacey and I on the cruise.  It was a large boat (can hold about 1500 passengers) that just goes up and down the Detroit River.  They have music, you eat dinner, you drink, and you watch the old people try to navigate the slightly tilted dance floor with a few glasses of liquor in them.  It was a delightful evening.  I would recommend it.

Here is the side of our boat, the Detroit Princes.  If you look right under the "E" in Princess, you can see Stacey.

Here is J, climbing up the Dunes.  It was very funny to watch him and R play around on them.

This is where we had dinner Friday night in Traverse City.  The sign did not lie, it was good food.  However, it did prompt me to wonder, at what point does a restaurant owner just throw up his arms and say, "our new marketing strategy is to paint our building an ugly pink."

We went up to a lighthouse that is about a half hour from Traverse City.  It was very pleasant.  This is our family up in the top of it.  You cant really see out, but, if you can guess from our being inside a lighthouse, outside the glass is water.

Here is Stacey, playing on the dune.

Five Year Anniversary Video

Here is our Five Year Anniversary Video.

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These have been an amazing and great five years.

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses (with chocolate)

Real quick post tonight... I had fun making these tasty little cookies with three helpers this morning. We moved our workstation from my enormous kitchen counters (ha!) to the table so everyone could help. Even Rebecca had to sit in a chair like Jacob and our friend we had over for the morning. Thanks to Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine for the choice this week!

Zucchini-Cheese Galette & Peach Bread

Saturday at the farmer's market we got some peaches to turn into jam. We ended up with more than we needed so Monday I used some in a quick bread recipe I found on A Life Less Sweet. The bread tastes great and comes together so easily (I guess that's likely a requirement for quick breads?!). I used only peaches for fruit, no nuts, white flour, less sugar, and flaxseed.

Monday morning the kids and I ventured out to our garden and discovered something that had obviously eluded me the entire last week. I thought our squash plants were done, finished, through, and when I went to start pulling up some of the moldy and dead leaves on our zucchini plant, I discovered this gargantuan beauty. I definitely should have found a ruler to put by it. The picture doesn't do it justice at all! Jacob was thrilled to say the least, though in the middle of our cheering session out by our garden plot he did say something about how he grew a big cucumber in our garden so I had to correct him.

Now was my chance to make something I'd seen on Smitten Kitchen several weeks ago, and boy was I excited. I had even told Jacob about it a while back and when I reminded him about the galette yesterday he was also looking forward to an excellent supper. I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta since I don't buy that stuff (a little pricier than the $1 tubs of cottage cheese at kroger!), and we were out of mozzarella due to lots of recent pizza making with ourselves and with visitors so I used cheddar instead. I thought this tasted so great. Jacob was thankful for galette in a few prayers last night (but more thankful for the Snoopy fruit snacks that Grandma sent). I have more than half of my giant zucchini left and plan on using it for something else soon...if you have an out of the box idea for me, leave it in the comments!

TWD: Oatmeal Spice Shortbreads

I loved the simplicity of these shortbreads. And as a bonus, they were perfect to deliver to a friend tonight, with whom I had already planned on visiting, since her son is allergic to eggs! I love old-fashioned oats, their texture was just so perfect in these little bites of buttery goodness. Please visit Donna's blog, Life's Too Short Not to Eat Dessert First to have a look at the recipe. Thanks to Donna for an excellent choice for this week!

Since I'm not an espresso drinker or user, I can't vouch for the actual recipe, but the delicious version Dorie included in the "Playing Around" section was fabulous. My house smelled so lovely this afternoon while I was mixing up the spices with the flour and of course while the shortbread was baking. I was also delighted in the middle of my clean-up process to realize that I did not need to wash my rolling pin since it never touched the dough while it was in the bag. Splendid!

I wanted to try some with cream cheese and a little peach slice on top. For some reason that sounded good in my head, maybe I'll give it a go at breakfast tomorrow.

Happy baking, and stick around for a couple more posts about how I've been using some of summer's bounty the last couple of days. I'm so looking forward to September's fare for Tuesdays With Dorie:

• Peanut Butter Crisscrosses
• Cranberry Upside-Downer
• Coffee-Break Muffins (I'll be making these with something else, maybe milk, instead of coffee and espresso)
• Tarte Fine (this will be my first experience with using puff pastry! And, in true Dorie style, she encourages bakers to scout out an all butter option. It doesn't surprise me at all that she and a certain Julia were good friends! Butter has a nice way of binding people together, perhaps literally and figuratively.)

"Rebecca has tails!"

The subject comes from Jacob's reaction to Rebecca's first set of pigtails this morning. She had a hat on for so much of her life that I never even really put bows in her hair so I was glad I finally remembered to get little hair ties at the store last night. If I can be good at this "doing hair" thing, this should be kind of fun as the years go on. The pictures aren't that great, but hopefully you can see her tiny tails. She doesn't have much hair just yet, which might be good: I have a while to learn how to French braid so that gives me something to work up to.

Jacob Makes Supper

Last Sunday Jacob found my dated copy of the Mickey Mouse Cookbook and said we should make something out of it. It was right before bedtime, so I told him he could pick something to make on Monday. Right before naptime we pored over the whole book together, with Jacob commenting mostly on the names of a couple characters he knew and asking who the others were, and asking about the recipes. In the end he decided to make Archimedes' Meat Loaf, Daisy's Baked Potatoes, and broccoli. I didn't get any pictures of him putting the meatloaf and potatoes in the oven with me, but that may have been one of his favorite parts of making dinner. But here's how the rest of dinner prep went down:

Mis en place!

Hands washed, apron on, and ready to go! He enjoyed beating the egg a bit but thought it was sauce at first. We eat eggs all the time but I guess he'd never seen one just hanging out in a bowl before.

breadcrumbs and herbs and garlic and onion

salt

ketchup

Mixing it all up after he dumped the hamburger in. He wasn't convinced using his hands would be okay until I did it.

• J: "Mommy! You're all dirty on your fingers!"
• Mom: "That's okay, I'll be sure to wash my hands in a minute or two."
• J: "Oh, I want to get my hands in the hangumer. I do! I do!"

Ready to bake!

A little dark around the edges due to baking it in our darker pan, but it was very tasty nonetheless! He was so excited to share what he made with the family.

And here is the little chef yesterday, heading outside to eat some of mom's leftover Primary smarties at his new picnic table. I figured I better post another picture of him sporting one of Jeff's fancy new ties. He loved that the tie had blue in it, just like his blue shirt.

TWD: Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

I'm a week late on this post, unfortunately. I was so excited about this tart and spent a lot of time last Monday preparing all of its different parts. If you are one of those people who keeps a partially baked tart shell in the freezer, this will come together pretty quickly. But I am not one of those people. I also am not one of those people who has a food processor, so I think I overworked my tart dough by a lot even before I put it in my extra hot oven to nearly burn the edges. The peaches were to be arranged in a spoke-like fashion around the center peach but my peaches were a little too big so I just did what you see above instead. I think the custard bakes better when the peaches aren't all layered together like how I had them, so I'll keep that in mind next time and use smaller peaches (and peaches that are a bit more ripe!). I don't want to sound complainy, but I was a little let down after all my work. I think next time I make any kind of tart I will borrow a food processor so I can at least get the pastry to come together better. I do love how pretty these tarts turned out for the other TWD bakers last week and here's hoping my next one is a little better! Thanks to Rachel for her excellent summer recipe pick! Visit her blog sweet tarte to get the recipe if you're interested in making this. Happy baking!