5.25.2010
His World
After a very difficult day yesterday, wherein I was mad at Kent for most of the day and spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself that I hadn't gotten to sleep the night before, I resolved that today would be better.
Yesterday: I was tired, headachey, and feeling the effects of yet another cold we're passing around, and I just wanted to do nothing, so we stayed at home for most of the day and I was pretty lazy and uninspired. Kent, as a result, went stir-crazy. He hit me, spent a lot of time not listening and talking back, got me so angry that I cried and yelled at him a couple of times, and generally gave all impressions that he wasn't a happy kid. I had a tearful phone call to my husband wherein I told him I wanted him to fix everything because I couldn't, and he came home for an extended lunch. Things just kept being difficult, because Kent's actions were met by my overreactions, sending his mood spiraling even further downward. There were a couple of miraculous potty successes, but the day was pretty much crap other than that. Even though Kent and I had a couple of good talks about how we should treat the people we love, which I think is always important after we make bad decisions, I went to bed so sad about how the day had gone, feeling like a horrible mom.
Today: I got much better sleep last night, thanks to Jack getting up with Dean a few times in the night. After breakfast, I loaded the boys in the car, and we went to the good park, the one with lots of big trees and fun equipment. It's in the 90s here, so we have to go early and got there at about 8:45. Kent spent a good hour and a half playing with this other funny little boy, I had a nice conversation with another nursing mom whose kids are just about the same ages as mine, I got Dean to giggle uproariously by tickling his feet, and then I washed all the sand off Kent's feet and we went to Highland Coffees, my old stomping grounds and still favorite coffee shop. I used my full stamp card to get a free drink (which makes for a good day all by itself), a rich Viennese iced coffee. Kent had some water, and we shared a croissant. We talked about the paintings on the wall (they always have cool displays from local artists) and the classical symphony playing over the speakers. He's learned a lot about instruments already, so we talked about some of the sounds we were hearing, and I gave him a refresher course on the string family. All on his own, he then learned to blow bubbles into his drink with a straw, because he was trying to talk while drinking. Then he kept doing it and saying, "It's funny when I talk into my drink, like this!" I told him that even though it's funny, he could only do it when there was a lid on his cup. (Yeah, we'll see how that goes.)
We got home and played outside for a while, and I harvested a few green beans and our first okra pods. Lunchtime was nice. There was a minor squabble over naptime, but now he's sleeping, and so is Dean. I tell ya, I do NOT take these Double Nap days for granted.
The afternoon's activities are yet to be determined, but I think we'll read books and maybe do some art together. Tonight, we're going to Chick Fil-A with friends so that Jack can study.
I realized last night, and again this morning, that the reason yesterday was so bad was that I kept expecting Kent to be on my level, to adapt to my world. I was tired and cranky, and I wanted him to cut me a break. He just doesn't know to do that, and I'm not being sensitive or smart when I expect it. So today, I'm trying to live more in his world. To structure things more according to his needs. It takes more energy, but I get a pretty awesome yield in the form of a happier kid. I don't bend over backward for him, or let him have his way all the time, but I do take into account that he's going to need time to run around and be crazy, and he's going to need me to engage him and make him feel loved and special.
Dean's needs are so uncomplicated and so few right now, it's been fairly easy to incorporate him into my role as Kent's mom. It works for me to think in terms of Kent's needs. As Dean gets older and has his own set of needs that are different from his big brother's, though, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to adapt.
Challenges: always. Rewards: always.
Yesterday: I was tired, headachey, and feeling the effects of yet another cold we're passing around, and I just wanted to do nothing, so we stayed at home for most of the day and I was pretty lazy and uninspired. Kent, as a result, went stir-crazy. He hit me, spent a lot of time not listening and talking back, got me so angry that I cried and yelled at him a couple of times, and generally gave all impressions that he wasn't a happy kid. I had a tearful phone call to my husband wherein I told him I wanted him to fix everything because I couldn't, and he came home for an extended lunch. Things just kept being difficult, because Kent's actions were met by my overreactions, sending his mood spiraling even further downward. There were a couple of miraculous potty successes, but the day was pretty much crap other than that. Even though Kent and I had a couple of good talks about how we should treat the people we love, which I think is always important after we make bad decisions, I went to bed so sad about how the day had gone, feeling like a horrible mom.
Today: I got much better sleep last night, thanks to Jack getting up with Dean a few times in the night. After breakfast, I loaded the boys in the car, and we went to the good park, the one with lots of big trees and fun equipment. It's in the 90s here, so we have to go early and got there at about 8:45. Kent spent a good hour and a half playing with this other funny little boy, I had a nice conversation with another nursing mom whose kids are just about the same ages as mine, I got Dean to giggle uproariously by tickling his feet, and then I washed all the sand off Kent's feet and we went to Highland Coffees, my old stomping grounds and still favorite coffee shop. I used my full stamp card to get a free drink (which makes for a good day all by itself), a rich Viennese iced coffee. Kent had some water, and we shared a croissant. We talked about the paintings on the wall (they always have cool displays from local artists) and the classical symphony playing over the speakers. He's learned a lot about instruments already, so we talked about some of the sounds we were hearing, and I gave him a refresher course on the string family. All on his own, he then learned to blow bubbles into his drink with a straw, because he was trying to talk while drinking. Then he kept doing it and saying, "It's funny when I talk into my drink, like this!" I told him that even though it's funny, he could only do it when there was a lid on his cup. (Yeah, we'll see how that goes.)
We got home and played outside for a while, and I harvested a few green beans and our first okra pods. Lunchtime was nice. There was a minor squabble over naptime, but now he's sleeping, and so is Dean. I tell ya, I do NOT take these Double Nap days for granted.
The afternoon's activities are yet to be determined, but I think we'll read books and maybe do some art together. Tonight, we're going to Chick Fil-A with friends so that Jack can study.
I realized last night, and again this morning, that the reason yesterday was so bad was that I kept expecting Kent to be on my level, to adapt to my world. I was tired and cranky, and I wanted him to cut me a break. He just doesn't know to do that, and I'm not being sensitive or smart when I expect it. So today, I'm trying to live more in his world. To structure things more according to his needs. It takes more energy, but I get a pretty awesome yield in the form of a happier kid. I don't bend over backward for him, or let him have his way all the time, but I do take into account that he's going to need time to run around and be crazy, and he's going to need me to engage him and make him feel loved and special.
Dean's needs are so uncomplicated and so few right now, it's been fairly easy to incorporate him into my role as Kent's mom. It works for me to think in terms of Kent's needs. As Dean gets older and has his own set of needs that are different from his big brother's, though, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to adapt.
Challenges: always. Rewards: always.
- posted by erica 5/25/2010 02:28:00 PM
- 3 comments
5.23.2010
Impulsive thinking
I’m thinking about all the profile shows I’ve seen of restaurant owners, where they say, “It was always our dream to open our own restaurant.” I never thought that was me. I never thought I’d have a dream like that. But now, all of a sudden (like today), I have one. I have the makings of a business plan. And it’s scary, because it’s such a cool idea and something I *so* want to exist.
It’s a coffee shop for parents and their kids. It has coffee and traditional coffee-shop food like muffins and the like, but it also has fun drinks for kids like smoothies, and healthy snacks. It has a play area with a train table, puzzles, blocks. Crayons and stickers at the tables. And some kind of showcase for work-at-home parents who make or sell their own stuff (like clothing, toys, cloth diapers), to be rotated every so often. It’s a place where parents can come to meet each other, or where groups of friends can come with their kids to have a chance to talk. There are no breakable things within the reach of kids, and plenty of things for kids to do. Maybe even a movie hour one or two days a week in the summer.
It’s a place for all the parents who loved coming to coffee shops to hang out before they had kids, but who worry about their kids breaking the expensive mugs and espresso machines on display. Or whose kids have nothing to do and want to leave after being at a coffee shop for ten minutes. Parents like me. Only, they can’t go back to when they were in college or grad school, so there’s a new coffee shop just for them. Regular people can come too, but it’s going to be too noisy to study, so all those students with their iPods and laptops will probably want to just go to one of the thousand other coffee shops that’s designed with them in mind. This one is for us.
I can’t even imagine all the zoning, health, and safety codes I’d have to adhere to. Not only are there the regular food and beverage licenses, but also whatever licenses there are for kids’ play areas. And of course I’d need a major loan, or a savvy investor. And probably the help of my husband, who’s very into his stable job and his benefits right now. Maybe I could do it with a business partner instead, but it would be kind of insane for Jack to have his job and me to be pouring everything I am into a new coffee shop. Insane, I know.
And what if, instead of hiring any slacker in a t-shirt, I hired education majors who also happened to love coffee? They could play with the kids, like taking a five-minute break to play Simon Says with whoever’s in the shop. It would be a great way for them to get babysitting gigs, too, if they wanted them, since the parents would come to know them and would see how they interact with their children.
Jack thinks I should talk to somebody who already owns a coffee shop and get them to do it, so I can enjoy the benefits without any of the risk. I told him not to kill my dream yet.
I’m creating a community here. It’s beautiful in my mind, simply wonderful. And if I ever happened to turn a profit, I’d find some awesome ways to do community outreach. I might even organize free parenting seminars and breastfeeding classes.
Is anyone else inspired yet?
It’s a coffee shop for parents and their kids. It has coffee and traditional coffee-shop food like muffins and the like, but it also has fun drinks for kids like smoothies, and healthy snacks. It has a play area with a train table, puzzles, blocks. Crayons and stickers at the tables. And some kind of showcase for work-at-home parents who make or sell their own stuff (like clothing, toys, cloth diapers), to be rotated every so often. It’s a place where parents can come to meet each other, or where groups of friends can come with their kids to have a chance to talk. There are no breakable things within the reach of kids, and plenty of things for kids to do. Maybe even a movie hour one or two days a week in the summer.
It’s a place for all the parents who loved coming to coffee shops to hang out before they had kids, but who worry about their kids breaking the expensive mugs and espresso machines on display. Or whose kids have nothing to do and want to leave after being at a coffee shop for ten minutes. Parents like me. Only, they can’t go back to when they were in college or grad school, so there’s a new coffee shop just for them. Regular people can come too, but it’s going to be too noisy to study, so all those students with their iPods and laptops will probably want to just go to one of the thousand other coffee shops that’s designed with them in mind. This one is for us.
I can’t even imagine all the zoning, health, and safety codes I’d have to adhere to. Not only are there the regular food and beverage licenses, but also whatever licenses there are for kids’ play areas. And of course I’d need a major loan, or a savvy investor. And probably the help of my husband, who’s very into his stable job and his benefits right now. Maybe I could do it with a business partner instead, but it would be kind of insane for Jack to have his job and me to be pouring everything I am into a new coffee shop. Insane, I know.
And what if, instead of hiring any slacker in a t-shirt, I hired education majors who also happened to love coffee? They could play with the kids, like taking a five-minute break to play Simon Says with whoever’s in the shop. It would be a great way for them to get babysitting gigs, too, if they wanted them, since the parents would come to know them and would see how they interact with their children.
Jack thinks I should talk to somebody who already owns a coffee shop and get them to do it, so I can enjoy the benefits without any of the risk. I told him not to kill my dream yet.
I’m creating a community here. It’s beautiful in my mind, simply wonderful. And if I ever happened to turn a profit, I’d find some awesome ways to do community outreach. I might even organize free parenting seminars and breastfeeding classes.
Is anyone else inspired yet?
- posted by erica 5/23/2010 04:20:00 PM
- 6 comments
1.22.2010
The mochaliciousness
Some of my friends from my parenting group are getting together on February 12 for a cupcake party. Since I don't know whether I'll actually be able to attend, depending on the status of my uterus and heretofore unborn child, I'm thinking of this particular party as my consolation prize in case I do go a week past my due date. In any case, I want to bring mocha cupcakes, but I needed to do a test batch, mostly because I had cupcakes on the brain and didn't want to wait three weeks to eat them.I crack myself up when I decide to bake a whole batch of something, then start looking around to figure out who's going to help us eat it. Some of these cupcakes are going to friends tomorrow, and the plate of mini cupcakes in the photo are going to church on Sunday. Various people at church will occasionally bring a plate of muffins, banana bread, a coffee cake, etc., for people to munch on with their coffee before or after the service, so I'll just add my little Mardi Gras cupcakes to that table and see what happens. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking home an empty plate.
Here are the recipes I used:
Black Cake (from Nina Tedder, a family friend)
2 sticks softened butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
1 cup warm coffee
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until combined. Add cocoa and baking soda, beat, then add some of the flour and beat well. Add coffee, remaining flour, vanilla, and salt, and beat until all ingredients are combined, scraping sides of bowl if necessary. Bake in pans or muffin tins at 350 F until done (depends on size of pans/muffins-- be sure to test with a toothpick).
[This cake recipe is for 2 layers or 1 sheet cake, but it ended up making 12 regular cupcakes and a whole bunch of mini cupcakes, since I wanted some of both. The regular cupcakes took about 15 minutes, the minis about 10, though you should probably just check them with a toothpick anyway.]
Mocha Icing (from The Joy of Cooking)
1/4 to 1/2 cup softened butter (I used 1/4 cup)
1 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1 to 2 Tbsp cocoa
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp strong hot coffee
1 tsp vanilla, almond flavoring, or rum (I used vanilla)
Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and cocoa gradually, blending until creamy. Add salt and coffee, beat for 2 minutes. When icing is cool, add vanilla, beat until blended. Let stand for 5 minutes, then beat again and spread on cake or cupcakes. Makes about 1 cup (which was enough to frost a whole batch of cupcakes).
[The icing ends up hardening after it sits, so it's best to frost the cupcakes and do any decorating right away. I'll have to remember this for our cupcake party, because we were going to let the kids decorate some, but that may not work so well on crusty icing. Maybe I'll bring the icing in a sealed container and frost them right before we let the kids do their thing with the sprinkles and the jelly beans and such.]
So far, these have been approved by everyone who has tried them. Kent would like another one, no matter how many he's already had.
Labels: coffee, holidays, kitchen adventures, photography
- posted by erica 1/22/2010 05:58:00 PM
- 6 comments
4.18.2009
Shifting expectations
Since Anilia is about to have her baby and Kent is about to get another cousin, I've been pondering the ways that life changes for people who have kids. In the space of just a couple of days, a person goes from having relatively little responsibility and getting to sleep generally as much as s/he wants (at least on the weekends/holidays), to the exact opposite of that. No control over the sleep situation, and more responsibility than s/he could ever have imagined.
I was just thinking about how, before Kent, my Saturday mornings consisted of sleeping until 9 or 10, eating breakfast with Jack, and then drinking coffee and watching the Food Network for an hour or two while he mowed the yard and trimmed branches and did all of that other outside stuff he does. We'd laze around all day, occasionally running some errands but mostly watching TV and/or movies, folding a bit of laundry, and catching up on email and blogging. We didn't do much housework, because it didn't matter if our house was cluttered for a while, and then we'd go through a bout of cleaning once things got really desperate.
This morning, we were up at 6, totally typical for our house these days. We finished breakfast by 7:30, and I've already done a load of laundry and started the dishwasher. Now I'm trying to decide whether we should get dressed and head to the farmers market when it opens at 8, or wait a little while and fold laundry first. I'm still drinking my coffee (Hallelujah!), but there will be no sitting in front of the TV all day or being "leisurely," at least not in the pre-Kent sense of the word.
Yet, our days are filled with more laughter, smiles, fun challenges, silly songs, enlightening teachable moments, and snuggles than ever before. No matter how tired I feel, I'd never go back to how things used to be. And hey, our house is cleaner than before we had a child. That's not something you hear every day.
I was just thinking about how, before Kent, my Saturday mornings consisted of sleeping until 9 or 10, eating breakfast with Jack, and then drinking coffee and watching the Food Network for an hour or two while he mowed the yard and trimmed branches and did all of that other outside stuff he does. We'd laze around all day, occasionally running some errands but mostly watching TV and/or movies, folding a bit of laundry, and catching up on email and blogging. We didn't do much housework, because it didn't matter if our house was cluttered for a while, and then we'd go through a bout of cleaning once things got really desperate.
This morning, we were up at 6, totally typical for our house these days. We finished breakfast by 7:30, and I've already done a load of laundry and started the dishwasher. Now I'm trying to decide whether we should get dressed and head to the farmers market when it opens at 8, or wait a little while and fold laundry first. I'm still drinking my coffee (Hallelujah!), but there will be no sitting in front of the TV all day or being "leisurely," at least not in the pre-Kent sense of the word.
Yet, our days are filled with more laughter, smiles, fun challenges, silly songs, enlightening teachable moments, and snuggles than ever before. No matter how tired I feel, I'd never go back to how things used to be. And hey, our house is cleaner than before we had a child. That's not something you hear every day.
Labels: coffee, family, getting older, Kent
- posted by erica 4/18/2009 08:38:00 AM
- 1 comments
2.21.2009
Valentine's Day post, after the fact
I had some photos from Valentine's Day and accompanying stories that I wanted to share, and tonight is the night I finally have a chance to sit down and get my photos from my camera, organize them, and make posts. Life with a busy toddler.
This particular busy toddler made some lovely little valentines for his grandparents and great-grandparents, thanks to one of the moms in my AP group, who organized a craft day for us (more on toddler art in another post — she and I are organizing a lot of artsy playdates this spring). She found this fantastic idea on the internet to potato-stamp regular white paper with heart shapes, then cut rectangles out of the stamped paper and paste them onto slightly larger, folded-over rectangles of cardstock to make cards. They turned out amazingly well. Kent had never stamped before and wasn't catching on right away, so I ended up helping a bit while he fingered the stamps and got paint all over himself.
When we got them home and were putting them in envelopes, though, I decided to pull out rubber ink stamps and let him give them a whirl. He loved stamping that time. Now, he can't get enough of it. He stamped the backs of all the envelopes with a fun heart stamp, using my favorite ink pad, which has shimmery ink in varying shades of pink and purple.
After all the valentines were assembled and addressed, he carried them out to the mailbox while I trotted along with the camera. It's such fun to capture these little moments with him. He feels so important when we give him jobs like mailing letters, putting things in the laundry or trash can, dumping measured ingredients and stirring (sort of) while I cook, etc. I'm getting better at figuring out how to incorporate my curious little boy into routine tasks, and while it usually ends up taking a LOT longer, it makes the task more fun for both of us.
So back to Valentine's celebrations: I found some bread at Whole Foods the day before V-day that claimed to have white chocolate and orange in it, which I thought sounded like a winning combination. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the bread, but then I figured out that it would probably make some butt-kicking French toast, which it did. I'm not much of a white chocolate person, but it turned out to be perfect with the orange in this dessert-y bread, and it's not overwhelmingly sweet, either.
Seek out the white chocolate orange bread, ye who shop at Whole Foods. Actually, if you have a Whole Foods within a day's drive of you, seek out this bread. You won't be sorry. I've been trying to find creative ways around syrup lately, so strawberries and powdered sugar were the perfect topping to our French toast, and there was coffee, of course. A weekend breakfast is not complete without our mugs of coffee on the table.
I had posted before about our modest Valentine's Day, but since no pictures were incorporated, it came off sounding fairly blah, except for all the Dagoba chocolate. We never go all-out for Valentine's Day, since Jack's birthday is two days earlier and I like to make a bigger deal out of that (note the leftover birthday candles on his placemat in our breakfast photo). I think this post does the holiday a bit more justice, though.
This particular busy toddler made some lovely little valentines for his grandparents and great-grandparents, thanks to one of the moms in my AP group, who organized a craft day for us (more on toddler art in another post — she and I are organizing a lot of artsy playdates this spring). She found this fantastic idea on the internet to potato-stamp regular white paper with heart shapes, then cut rectangles out of the stamped paper and paste them onto slightly larger, folded-over rectangles of cardstock to make cards. They turned out amazingly well. Kent had never stamped before and wasn't catching on right away, so I ended up helping a bit while he fingered the stamps and got paint all over himself.
When we got them home and were putting them in envelopes, though, I decided to pull out rubber ink stamps and let him give them a whirl. He loved stamping that time. Now, he can't get enough of it. He stamped the backs of all the envelopes with a fun heart stamp, using my favorite ink pad, which has shimmery ink in varying shades of pink and purple.
After all the valentines were assembled and addressed, he carried them out to the mailbox while I trotted along with the camera. It's such fun to capture these little moments with him. He feels so important when we give him jobs like mailing letters, putting things in the laundry or trash can, dumping measured ingredients and stirring (sort of) while I cook, etc. I'm getting better at figuring out how to incorporate my curious little boy into routine tasks, and while it usually ends up taking a LOT longer, it makes the task more fun for both of us.So back to Valentine's celebrations: I found some bread at Whole Foods the day before V-day that claimed to have white chocolate and orange in it, which I thought sounded like a winning combination. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the bread, but then I figured out that it would probably make some butt-kicking French toast, which it did. I'm not much of a white chocolate person, but it turned out to be perfect with the orange in this dessert-y bread, and it's not overwhelmingly sweet, either.
Seek out the white chocolate orange bread, ye who shop at Whole Foods. Actually, if you have a Whole Foods within a day's drive of you, seek out this bread. You won't be sorry. I've been trying to find creative ways around syrup lately, so strawberries and powdered sugar were the perfect topping to our French toast, and there was coffee, of course. A weekend breakfast is not complete without our mugs of coffee on the table.I had posted before about our modest Valentine's Day, but since no pictures were incorporated, it came off sounding fairly blah, except for all the Dagoba chocolate. We never go all-out for Valentine's Day, since Jack's birthday is two days earlier and I like to make a bigger deal out of that (note the leftover birthday candles on his placemat in our breakfast photo). I think this post does the holiday a bit more justice, though.
Labels: coffee, craftiness, holidays, Kent, kitchen adventures, photography
- posted by erica 2/21/2009 10:10:00 PM
- 2 comments
12.23.2008
More holiday food things
I realized yesterday that in my flurry of holiday baking last weekend, I forgot to set aside some stuff for our mail carrier, as I had planned to do. We give something to her every year, since it was always so neat when my stepdad Bill got presents and baked things from his customers at Christmas and I like passing that on. I baked some extra cheese wafers today (and wondered what I ever did before I got a Silpat this summer), then put a dozen of those and the recipe down in a cute holiday bag. They're now sitting in our mailbox awaiting her Christmas Eve visit.
I've been going peppermint crazy this Christmas, ordering peppermint mochas every time I'm within shouting range of a coffeeshop and enjoying peppermint bark and candy canes more than usual. I used to not care much one way or the other about peppermint, partly because it sort of burned my tongue, but this year, I'm not sure what happened — I've just been seeking it out everywhere. I'm not normally into the froofie coffee drinks, either, but peppermint mochas just sing to me. After a few unsuccessful grocery store hunts for bottled peppermint syrup, it dawned on me: Google. Duh. I found this recipe and made some tonight, put in a drop of red food coloring so I won't forget what it is, then distributed it among four old baby food jars. I figure they're easier to pour from than a big mason jar, and I don't have any other airtight containers suitable for liquids.
I knew I was keeping those jars around for something. I'm becoming more like my mother each day. When I was a kid (and a snotty teenager/college student, and probably even more recently than that), I used to roll my eyes at all the stuff she saved that she thought she might someday be able to use, or that someone else might someday be able to use. Freecycle has become like a godsend for her, because through the magic of the internet, she now has a quick way to get that stuff she saves to people who need it. If you told my teenaged self this, that Erica wouldn't believe you, but I appreciate this awesome resourcefulness now. I just have to make sure I have a place to keep the futurely useful things, and if I don't have a place, I don't keep them.
Anyway, I'll let you know how my homemade peppermint mocha that I plan to make tomorrow morning turns out.
I realize that I've mentioned the cheese wafers twice recently, so here's the recipe, slightly adjusted from my grandmother's recipe that she got from I'm-not-sure-who before her. Note: cayenne can be adjusted to taste. The original recipe calls for a "dash" but I've used as much as 1/4 tsp, and it's got a kick but it's not overpowering.
Cheese Wafers
The original recipe calls for rolling the dough into logs, refrigerating it, then slicing it, but mine is always too crumbly for that, so I find that just using my hands works much better. These little crispy things are so good, and they keep for months. We found this out by accident when we once forgot about a batch my grandmother made us, then found them a couple of months later and finished off the whole container.
Yumminess to all, and to all a good night!
I've been going peppermint crazy this Christmas, ordering peppermint mochas every time I'm within shouting range of a coffeeshop and enjoying peppermint bark and candy canes more than usual. I used to not care much one way or the other about peppermint, partly because it sort of burned my tongue, but this year, I'm not sure what happened — I've just been seeking it out everywhere. I'm not normally into the froofie coffee drinks, either, but peppermint mochas just sing to me. After a few unsuccessful grocery store hunts for bottled peppermint syrup, it dawned on me: Google. Duh. I found this recipe and made some tonight, put in a drop of red food coloring so I won't forget what it is, then distributed it among four old baby food jars. I figure they're easier to pour from than a big mason jar, and I don't have any other airtight containers suitable for liquids.
I knew I was keeping those jars around for something. I'm becoming more like my mother each day. When I was a kid (and a snotty teenager/college student, and probably even more recently than that), I used to roll my eyes at all the stuff she saved that she thought she might someday be able to use, or that someone else might someday be able to use. Freecycle has become like a godsend for her, because through the magic of the internet, she now has a quick way to get that stuff she saves to people who need it. If you told my teenaged self this, that Erica wouldn't believe you, but I appreciate this awesome resourcefulness now. I just have to make sure I have a place to keep the futurely useful things, and if I don't have a place, I don't keep them.
Anyway, I'll let you know how my homemade peppermint mocha that I plan to make tomorrow morning turns out.
I realize that I've mentioned the cheese wafers twice recently, so here's the recipe, slightly adjusted from my grandmother's recipe that she got from I'm-not-sure-who before her. Note: cayenne can be adjusted to taste. The original recipe calls for a "dash" but I've used as much as 1/4 tsp, and it's got a kick but it's not overpowering.
Cheese Wafers
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup Rice Krispies
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- somewhere between a dash and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
The original recipe calls for rolling the dough into logs, refrigerating it, then slicing it, but mine is always too crumbly for that, so I find that just using my hands works much better. These little crispy things are so good, and they keep for months. We found this out by accident when we once forgot about a batch my grandmother made us, then found them a couple of months later and finished off the whole container.
Yumminess to all, and to all a good night!
Labels: coffee, family, holidays, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 12/23/2008 09:29:00 PM
- 0 comments
12.20.2008
December Photo Project: Day 20
café au lait and powdered sugar at a local beignet joint (my advisor's choice of meeting place today)
Also, we wrapped a bunch of presents today, and we've received a few in the mail, so our tree area is starting to look even more festive. It feels strange to be preparing for a Christmas at our house instead of preparing to travel, but it's much lower stress, because everything has already gone in the mail and we don't have to pack anything. It's hard to convince ourselves that Christmas is coming in a few days, since the weather outside has been near 80 for several days in a row. I think it's still coming, though. I'll know for sure on Christmas Eve, when we get to go to Lessons & Carols at our church for the very first time. That'll be excellent.
Labels: church, coffee, holidays, photography
- posted by erica 12/20/2008 08:21:00 PM
- 0 comments
10.02.2008
Enjoying the afternoon
I just met with my advisor, so I'm at my old favorite coffee shop (as opposed to my new favorite, which is slightly away from campus). I'm finishing a delicious iced Viennese coffee, and they're playing my favorite Mozart Symphony, the Prague (no. 39). It rocks my ears. There's a little girl about Kent's age who's babbling away next to me. Little-girl-toddler babbling is so adorable, mostly the same syllables as Kent but with a softer, satiny tone. Now, I'm off to pick up Kent from daycare, then take him home and get us both all gussied up for our church directory photo tonight. Jack will have about five minutes at home to gussy himself up, but at least I ironed both of their shirts already. And I don't iron clothes. I think I did it partly because I was already in the ironing groove from all the sewing, and partly because it always reflects on the mom/wife if the husband and child are wearing wrinkled clothes in a professional photo. Why is that still true? A question for another time, I suppose.
- posted by erica 10/02/2008 03:17:00 PM
- 0 comments
10.02.2007
JitteryTeenBucks
I heard this brilliant commentary on public radio's Marketplace yesterday afternoon. It speculates about the effects of Starbucks' new plan to market to kids and teens, which scares me a little. The commentator asserts that perhaps they should change their name to JitteryTeenBucks.
Of course, part of what worries this particular commentator is that teenagers will take over the coffeehouse and turn it into something it's not... but I'd remind him that there's always the option of visiting a local business over a national chain, which I try to do whenever possible. They hardly ever market to anyone, and yet they somehow sustain themselves... or at least the good ones do. Starbucks has consistently good coffee (strong, how I like it!), but the atmosphere can sort of suck when compared to local places like my fave Highland Coffees, which roasts its own beans on site and has big burlap sacks of beans casually piled outside the roasting room (you wouldn't believe how good it smells). It also has its walls covered with the photographs and paintings of local artists, and they play whatever music they want, instead of whatever CD they're trying to sell to their customers. I'm not really trying to bash Starbucks. It's just coming out that way.
Anyway, the commentators on public radio are some of the most informed, thoughtful, and witty journalists around. I just love them. Make the time to listen to this if you're even a little bit of a coffeehouse person.
Of course, part of what worries this particular commentator is that teenagers will take over the coffeehouse and turn it into something it's not... but I'd remind him that there's always the option of visiting a local business over a national chain, which I try to do whenever possible. They hardly ever market to anyone, and yet they somehow sustain themselves... or at least the good ones do. Starbucks has consistently good coffee (strong, how I like it!), but the atmosphere can sort of suck when compared to local places like my fave Highland Coffees, which roasts its own beans on site and has big burlap sacks of beans casually piled outside the roasting room (you wouldn't believe how good it smells). It also has its walls covered with the photographs and paintings of local artists, and they play whatever music they want, instead of whatever CD they're trying to sell to their customers. I'm not really trying to bash Starbucks. It's just coming out that way.
Anyway, the commentators on public radio are some of the most informed, thoughtful, and witty journalists around. I just love them. Make the time to listen to this if you're even a little bit of a coffeehouse person.
Labels: coffee, listening miscellany
- posted by erica 10/02/2007 11:39:00 AM
- 2 comments
5.07.2005
Coffee filters
So I have a question for all you coffee drinkers. Are expensive coffee filters significantly better than cheap ones? I use the cone-shaped paper filters -- generic, usually -- and lately, they've been splitting open at the bottom every time I brew a pot. I actually had a dream about filters last night, and in the dream, we had to buy filters that didn't even have a seam. They were just folded over, so I had to go through this very elaborate process of wetting them so the fold wouldn't let any grounds through. You know a problem is starting to affect me when it seeps into my dreams! I keep ending up with yucky grounds in the bottom of my cup, and it was particularly bad today when I tried to gulp down my last bit of coffee and got a mouthful of coffee bean pieces. Blech. What I'm wondering is (is) whether it's worth it to invest in one of those reusable filters that's made with some sort of screen, or whether I should just upgrade my paper filters to a different brand, or what. I do not like ingesting coffee grounds, though I'm sure it could be worse.
Labels: coffee, dreaming, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 5/07/2005 11:29:00 AM
- 3 comments
5.04.2005
All grown up
I feel like an adult now. Let us not overlook the fact that I turned 25 on Sunday, which, let's face it, is old (she says, tongue-in-cheek). But that's not why I feel like a grown-up today. Today was the first time I actually enjoyed a cup of black coffee.
My step-dad told me once that when he first tried coffee, he put a lot of cream and sugar in it, but he really hated it. Only later did he realize that it was the cream and sugar he didn't like, and once he got down to the actual coffee, he thought it was great. My experience wasn't exactly like that; rather, I had to train myself over a period of years to take less and less other stuff in my coffee. I used to put milk and sugar, and then I started using flavored creamers, because at least that's only one thing to add. Then I found out that cream or half & half does the job of cutting the bitterness, and it's sweet enough that I don't have to add sugar or silly expensive flavorings as well. So for a while now, I've been putting half & half in my coffee and skipping the sugar. However, out of necessity, I drank a cup of black coffee today, and I actually liked it. One of my favorite professors has a little one-cup coffee maker in his office, and I've availed myself of a cup from time to time. I smelled his freshly-brewed cup today, and so I asked if I could make myself a cup, but then I had to go help a student for a little while, so he brought me my coffee when it was done brewing, sans additives. At first, I was about to run into his office and put something in it, but then I thought, "No, I'll try this. Maybe I can handle it by now." Apparently, I can. Over time, I've gotten used to the actual coffee taste, which I used to think was bitter and horrible but now find rather comforting and invigorating.
I always thought it'd be so much easier if I could just train myself to drink black coffee, because it's more convenient not to add stuff and risk making a big mess. Additionally, I always thought I'd be cooler if I could drink it straight, because then I'd have something in common with detectives, coffee-house snobs, and the Gilmore girls. And I was right! I even feel cooler.
I've just come to the realization that I spent entirely too much time thinking about this. I really need a life.
My step-dad told me once that when he first tried coffee, he put a lot of cream and sugar in it, but he really hated it. Only later did he realize that it was the cream and sugar he didn't like, and once he got down to the actual coffee, he thought it was great. My experience wasn't exactly like that; rather, I had to train myself over a period of years to take less and less other stuff in my coffee. I used to put milk and sugar, and then I started using flavored creamers, because at least that's only one thing to add. Then I found out that cream or half & half does the job of cutting the bitterness, and it's sweet enough that I don't have to add sugar or silly expensive flavorings as well. So for a while now, I've been putting half & half in my coffee and skipping the sugar. However, out of necessity, I drank a cup of black coffee today, and I actually liked it. One of my favorite professors has a little one-cup coffee maker in his office, and I've availed myself of a cup from time to time. I smelled his freshly-brewed cup today, and so I asked if I could make myself a cup, but then I had to go help a student for a little while, so he brought me my coffee when it was done brewing, sans additives. At first, I was about to run into his office and put something in it, but then I thought, "No, I'll try this. Maybe I can handle it by now." Apparently, I can. Over time, I've gotten used to the actual coffee taste, which I used to think was bitter and horrible but now find rather comforting and invigorating.
I always thought it'd be so much easier if I could just train myself to drink black coffee, because it's more convenient not to add stuff and risk making a big mess. Additionally, I always thought I'd be cooler if I could drink it straight, because then I'd have something in common with detectives, coffee-house snobs, and the Gilmore girls. And I was right! I even feel cooler.
I've just come to the realization that I spent entirely too much time thinking about this. I really need a life.
Labels: coffee, getting older, my stepdad
- posted by erica 5/04/2005 04:45:00 PM
- 2 comments
1.21.2005
First Week Back
Well, the semester started, just as I suspected it would. It's great to be back in school and not sitting around doing nothing with the cats. As I think I said before Christmas, "our" building on campus is being gutted--probably for the next 3 to 5 years--so we've been moved across campus to Hatcher Hall. There are great things about Hatcher, like the large office and large window that Dave and I now share instead of the closet we were smooshed into last semester. Some of the classrooms are great, like the rooms in the basement that we teach our aural skills labs in. The moving people brought over the white boards with staff lines on them, but so far no one has hung them on the wall, so we're all finding ourselves crouching down on the floor, and the students find themselves craning to see the board over everyone else's head. Additionally, two of the classrooms at the ends of halls are a very odd shape, supposedly because the hall was once a dorm, and they're shaped like brackets, and the desks have to be arranged such that many people in the classroom are unable to see many other people. I'm taking a seminar in that room, and the professor actually intends to run it like a seminar (complete with class discussion), so he's pretty frustrated by the fact that we'd barely be able to talk to each other around the bracket. He was frank with us today and said that if he can scare enough people away, we can move the class into a different room that holds 15. His motives for scaring people away are manifold, though; it's a math-intensive class, and he doesn't want to have students who just have to take some theory class sitting in and slowing the rest of us down. Unfortunately, the other logical theory class for these people to take is offered at the same time as one of the singers' diction classes, so we're stuck with singers who have to take a theory class this semester and who also failed the theory diagnostic and took remedial last semester (otherwise, they could have taken a theory last semester). Ugh, I say. I sympathize with our prof's not wanting students who aren't prepared, and I also sympathize with my own desire to learn at a quick pace. I think we're all just going to have to take deep breaths and quietly curse the Registrar or whoever makes scheduling decisions.
In other news, my Russian class is fun, but I'm kind of in a weirder situation than I had anticipated. Though the course catalog lists this as Elementary Russian 1, it's actually the second semester of Russian. This means that I'm in a class with people who have gotten over the hurdle of reading Cyrillic and are now on to better things like case and conjugation. They also all have the textbook from last semester, but the language department forgot to turn in Dr. Rutherford's book order, so the bookstore doesn't have any extras. I'm working on getting one online, and in the meantime, the professor was able to lend me a desk copy that she had. I've been working over the last few days on learning the alphabet, and I've got all the consonants under my belt. However, the vowels are giving me trouble, and there are ten of them. There's the set of hard vowels that sound like "a," "eh," "ih," "o," and "ou," (loosely), but then there are also the soft ones, those that sound like "yah," "yeh," "ee," "yo," and "you," and those don't look anything like their harder counterparts. They're just mean. I do at least have a book to work through on my own (and hopefully catch up with where the class is at some point), even though my workbook will have to be ordered online as well. I'm auditing the class, so I'm okay with just sitting in class and absorbing as much as I can, and maybe at some point, I'll know enough to be able to do the homework! The professor is nice about it--mostly she's just thrilled to have someone learning a language for fun instead of to fulfill a requirement--so she only calls on me if there's a REALLY easy question she knows I can answer. There have been three of those in the last four days of class. I'm viewing this as my chance to learn a bit of Russian in a classroom environment so that I can continue studying on my own later with a bit of a foundation on which to build. I'm not sure if I'll ever have a hole in my schedule again, since it's hard to schedule around a class that meets every day, so I'm trying to get as much out of this semester as possible!
In my spare/other time, I'm trying to get some reading done that has to do with figuring out my Schubert thesis, and I'm also to the quilting stage of the baby quilt . The piecing part was quick, but it wasn't exactly easy to do well; there are certain places I'm trying to ignore because the corners look kind of disjunct. At least he's a baby and won't be able to discriminate. I'll post pictures after I've finished, but right now, only half of the center block has been quilted and the rest is all marked up with soap.
It was a good first week, even though I'm having to deal with new parking lots and a longer walk to class, including a leisurely stroll past all the ugly stadium construction (they're re-doing the upper deck and are behind schedule--quel choc). It's not a bad area of campus, but I haven't figured out where to get snacks or a good cup of coffee yet. We're now a good 15-minute walk from Highland Coffees, our former caffeine-fix venue of choice, so I'm about ready to explore this end of campus and figure out what's available. It won't be as good as Highland, but if it's closer, I may settle anyway.
Okay, time to quilt while there's still natural light outside. It's so much harder to see anything small in this dimly-lit room after the sun goes down!
In other news, my Russian class is fun, but I'm kind of in a weirder situation than I had anticipated. Though the course catalog lists this as Elementary Russian 1, it's actually the second semester of Russian. This means that I'm in a class with people who have gotten over the hurdle of reading Cyrillic and are now on to better things like case and conjugation. They also all have the textbook from last semester, but the language department forgot to turn in Dr. Rutherford's book order, so the bookstore doesn't have any extras. I'm working on getting one online, and in the meantime, the professor was able to lend me a desk copy that she had. I've been working over the last few days on learning the alphabet, and I've got all the consonants under my belt. However, the vowels are giving me trouble, and there are ten of them. There's the set of hard vowels that sound like "a," "eh," "ih," "o," and "ou," (loosely), but then there are also the soft ones, those that sound like "yah," "yeh," "ee," "yo," and "you," and those don't look anything like their harder counterparts. They're just mean. I do at least have a book to work through on my own (and hopefully catch up with where the class is at some point), even though my workbook will have to be ordered online as well. I'm auditing the class, so I'm okay with just sitting in class and absorbing as much as I can, and maybe at some point, I'll know enough to be able to do the homework! The professor is nice about it--mostly she's just thrilled to have someone learning a language for fun instead of to fulfill a requirement--so she only calls on me if there's a REALLY easy question she knows I can answer. There have been three of those in the last four days of class. I'm viewing this as my chance to learn a bit of Russian in a classroom environment so that I can continue studying on my own later with a bit of a foundation on which to build. I'm not sure if I'll ever have a hole in my schedule again, since it's hard to schedule around a class that meets every day, so I'm trying to get as much out of this semester as possible!
In my spare/other time, I'm trying to get some reading done that has to do with figuring out my Schubert thesis, and I'm also to the quilting stage of the baby quilt . The piecing part was quick, but it wasn't exactly easy to do well; there are certain places I'm trying to ignore because the corners look kind of disjunct. At least he's a baby and won't be able to discriminate. I'll post pictures after I've finished, but right now, only half of the center block has been quilted and the rest is all marked up with soap.
It was a good first week, even though I'm having to deal with new parking lots and a longer walk to class, including a leisurely stroll past all the ugly stadium construction (they're re-doing the upper deck and are behind schedule--quel choc). It's not a bad area of campus, but I haven't figured out where to get snacks or a good cup of coffee yet. We're now a good 15-minute walk from Highland Coffees, our former caffeine-fix venue of choice, so I'm about ready to explore this end of campus and figure out what's available. It won't be as good as Highland, but if it's closer, I may settle anyway.
Okay, time to quilt while there's still natural light outside. It's so much harder to see anything small in this dimly-lit room after the sun goes down!
Labels: coffee, craftiness, language, school
- posted by erica 1/21/2005 02:53:00 PM
- 0 comments
5.29.2004
I love Saturday mornings
Only on Saturday mornings do I get to drink coffee and listen to Car Talk. What a great day.
I started the process last night of making vanilla extract, and I decided some of you guys might be interested in knowing how! My grandmother in Winston-Salem learned this from the caterer that my uncle worked with, and she's been making her own ever since. All you need is vodka, vanilla beans, and time.
Get a fifth of vodka. Incidentally, a fifth is .75 liters... can anyone tell me what it's supposed to a fifth of?? I had to ask the guy at the liquor store what size a fifth was, and I felt ridiculous. I don't suppose it matters what brand of vodka you get. I bought the cheap grocery store's brand at $5 a bottle. =) You'll also need about eight vanilla beans, which are best found at natural foods stores. Regular grocery stores sell them too, but at a very inflated price. Most of the natural foods stores sell them by the pound, and since they're light, it's somewhere between $3 and $5 for eight. It depends on their size, of course. Once you get home, split them open lengthwise to release all the fun vanilla stuff and cram all that down in the vodka bottle. You may want to pour out a little bit of the vodka first... I almost spilled it because my vanilla beans were displacing a lot of liquid. Put the cap back on the bottle, leave it for two months, and you'll have vanilla extract. If you want to use some at that point and then leave the rest in the bottle, Granny says it will only get better. =) She actually got a bunch of little pharmacy bottles and distributed the first batch she made. I suppose you'd have to do a lot of baking to use the whole bottle yourself in a reasonable amount of time!
I started the process last night of making vanilla extract, and I decided some of you guys might be interested in knowing how! My grandmother in Winston-Salem learned this from the caterer that my uncle worked with, and she's been making her own ever since. All you need is vodka, vanilla beans, and time.
Get a fifth of vodka. Incidentally, a fifth is .75 liters... can anyone tell me what it's supposed to a fifth of?? I had to ask the guy at the liquor store what size a fifth was, and I felt ridiculous. I don't suppose it matters what brand of vodka you get. I bought the cheap grocery store's brand at $5 a bottle. =) You'll also need about eight vanilla beans, which are best found at natural foods stores. Regular grocery stores sell them too, but at a very inflated price. Most of the natural foods stores sell them by the pound, and since they're light, it's somewhere between $3 and $5 for eight. It depends on their size, of course. Once you get home, split them open lengthwise to release all the fun vanilla stuff and cram all that down in the vodka bottle. You may want to pour out a little bit of the vodka first... I almost spilled it because my vanilla beans were displacing a lot of liquid. Put the cap back on the bottle, leave it for two months, and you'll have vanilla extract. If you want to use some at that point and then leave the rest in the bottle, Granny says it will only get better. =) She actually got a bunch of little pharmacy bottles and distributed the first batch she made. I suppose you'd have to do a lot of baking to use the whole bottle yourself in a reasonable amount of time!
Labels: coffee, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 5/29/2004 11:43:00 AM
- 3 comments
5.16.2004
Cooking adventures
So yesterday evening, I made spaghetti squash, which was good as always, because I put butter, parmesan and mozzarella, and diced tomatoes in it and baked it up like a casserole. Anyone who hasn't ever made spaghetti squash should definitely try it; I never had any growing up, nor had I even heard of it until Jeannette brought it for lunch one day. It's easy to make and is the consistency of pasta but better for you!
After this fun dinner, I got in the mood to make something for dessert, but I knew that cakes or cookies would take a long time and that we probably didn't have all the right ingredients. I pulled out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and looked at the dessert and bread recipes, and I happened upon a great recipe for sour cream coffee cake which I made. It was sooooooo good with our decaf Starbucks coffee (we have to drink decaf in the evenings, something I forgot last week before my Schenker exam when I had three cups of coffee after dinner and then woke up at 7 a.m. all jittery and hyper-alert).
While I was looking at all the bread recipes, I saw one for bagels, and I thought, "No, impossible." However, I read through the directions, and it was a lot like the pretzel recipe Popop and I used when I was young (that was our tradition), so I figured it couldn't be terrible. I actually made them after I got home from church today, and they turned out really well, even though they're fairly small. I made 13 (a baker's dozen, though it was inadvertent) from the recipe, even though it suggested making 18, so I can't imagine how tiny they would have been if I had tried to get more out of the one ball of dough!
I have learned one thing, though; from now on, whenever I see the words "ungreased baking sheet" in a recipe, I plan to ignore the "ungreased" part completely. The first batch, which was 9 of the 13 bagels, left all their bottoms behind on the cookie sheet. Luckily, I figured it out before the second batch (the remaining 4) had cooked much, so I pulled them out of the oven, greased the sheet underneath them, and put them back in. At least we have four with real bottoms. This is not the first time I've had something stick to an ungreased baking sheet when it wasn't supposed to, so from now on, I'm going to take the word "ungreased" as an indication to do the exact opposite.
Does anybody else have this problem, or am I just weird? I suppose if we had Teflon cookie sheets, it wouldn't be such a problem, but we have insulated ones so things won't burn. Perhaps there's a trade-off I wasn't aware of. =) Regardless of the problem with their bottoms, they are really tasty, and I would highly recommend the recipe. (We made yummy bagel pizzas tonight after Nicole's suggestion, plus some green bean casserole since I was in the mood for it.) Making the bagels did take a long time, though, since I was the only person rolling them all out, so if you can solicit some help, that's probably a good idea. Jack would have helped if he hadn't been at work. I think for the next batch, I'll probably wait until he's home. All in all, it was a success. Now I'm going to go eat some reheated coffee cake that won't be as good as it was last night, but I'll survive!
After this fun dinner, I got in the mood to make something for dessert, but I knew that cakes or cookies would take a long time and that we probably didn't have all the right ingredients. I pulled out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and looked at the dessert and bread recipes, and I happened upon a great recipe for sour cream coffee cake which I made. It was sooooooo good with our decaf Starbucks coffee (we have to drink decaf in the evenings, something I forgot last week before my Schenker exam when I had three cups of coffee after dinner and then woke up at 7 a.m. all jittery and hyper-alert).
While I was looking at all the bread recipes, I saw one for bagels, and I thought, "No, impossible." However, I read through the directions, and it was a lot like the pretzel recipe Popop and I used when I was young (that was our tradition), so I figured it couldn't be terrible. I actually made them after I got home from church today, and they turned out really well, even though they're fairly small. I made 13 (a baker's dozen, though it was inadvertent) from the recipe, even though it suggested making 18, so I can't imagine how tiny they would have been if I had tried to get more out of the one ball of dough!
I have learned one thing, though; from now on, whenever I see the words "ungreased baking sheet" in a recipe, I plan to ignore the "ungreased" part completely. The first batch, which was 9 of the 13 bagels, left all their bottoms behind on the cookie sheet. Luckily, I figured it out before the second batch (the remaining 4) had cooked much, so I pulled them out of the oven, greased the sheet underneath them, and put them back in. At least we have four with real bottoms. This is not the first time I've had something stick to an ungreased baking sheet when it wasn't supposed to, so from now on, I'm going to take the word "ungreased" as an indication to do the exact opposite.
Does anybody else have this problem, or am I just weird? I suppose if we had Teflon cookie sheets, it wouldn't be such a problem, but we have insulated ones so things won't burn. Perhaps there's a trade-off I wasn't aware of. =) Regardless of the problem with their bottoms, they are really tasty, and I would highly recommend the recipe. (We made yummy bagel pizzas tonight after Nicole's suggestion, plus some green bean casserole since I was in the mood for it.) Making the bagels did take a long time, though, since I was the only person rolling them all out, so if you can solicit some help, that's probably a good idea. Jack would have helped if he hadn't been at work. I think for the next batch, I'll probably wait until he's home. All in all, it was a success. Now I'm going to go eat some reheated coffee cake that won't be as good as it was last night, but I'll survive!
Labels: coffee, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 5/16/2004 10:19:00 PM
- 2 comments
3.05.2004
No more phone
Okay, our landline is officially gone now, so don't try to call our home phone number anymore. You can reach me on my cell phone or Jack on his, so if you need one or both of those numbers, email me!
Things are shaping up, at least a little, in my confusing class. I can't explain it, except that I've started to realize that what turned me off initially, the inconsistencies in the theory, are actually normal and hotly debated in theory circles. Once I realized that it wasn't one specific goal I was trying to achieve with each graph, I began to relax. Conversely, I'm now somewhat sick; Jack and I both woke up with a bunch of crud in our throats this morning, so we might be coming down with something, or we might just be hyper-allergic in this season of renewed humidity and festive blooming. Time will tell. I tried to drink OJ this morning but my throat just felt gross afterward, so I'll continue the vitamins and see if I can get rid of this! I slept poorly last night because I kept having to force myself to swallow. I also had the continuous urge to spit, but I didn't have the energy to get up. Yes, it was a fabulous night.
We did have a fun day yesterday; I got away from school around noon and Jack had the day off, so we went out to the Olive Garden for lunch and then rented School of Rock (see Plug of the "week" to the left). My original plan was for us to see a movie in the theater, but I didn't feel like seeing a horrific display of disturbing behavior (in Monster or Mystic River), nor was I in the mood for an epic (Cold Mountain), even though I do want to see each of these movies eventually. The only thing playing that I really did want to see was Girl with a Pearl Earring, but we had missed the first showing and it wasn't showing again until after 6, which is when we'd have to pay full price for a ticket. Yuck. I wasn't in the mood for that either, so we went to Blockbuster instead! This summer, we're going to follow Steve's (Lauren's boyfriend's) lead and try Netflix for a month; summer is better, because then I'll have time to watch enough movies to get our money's worth out of joining! Until then, we frequent Blockbuster. Ho hum.
It's been quite humid all week, leading me to wonder why I've bothered to straighten my hair four out of the five mornings I went to school. As soon as I spent a minute outside, it was back to poofy/frizzy, so I've ended up pulling it back! It's so nice that it's starting to be long, but I definitely don't enjoy it when it's wavy and annoyingly big. This weekend, I'll be straightening the house in preparation for Mom/Bill and Mimi/Popop's visit next week, which is going to be such fun once I figure out activities for us. I think I mentioned before that we'll be going to New Orleans on Thursday and eating at Emeril's restaurant, but other than that, we have no plans thus far, except that they'll probably want to come see my office and stuff at LSU. I can just see myself leading the troop all around campus. =) Actually, I haven't been all around campus, so I'd get lost; that's shaping up to be a bad idea. I'll at least take them to my building and my coffee shop, which are really the two most important buildings I live in besides the library.
I really have no way to end this post that will make sense.
Things are shaping up, at least a little, in my confusing class. I can't explain it, except that I've started to realize that what turned me off initially, the inconsistencies in the theory, are actually normal and hotly debated in theory circles. Once I realized that it wasn't one specific goal I was trying to achieve with each graph, I began to relax. Conversely, I'm now somewhat sick; Jack and I both woke up with a bunch of crud in our throats this morning, so we might be coming down with something, or we might just be hyper-allergic in this season of renewed humidity and festive blooming. Time will tell. I tried to drink OJ this morning but my throat just felt gross afterward, so I'll continue the vitamins and see if I can get rid of this! I slept poorly last night because I kept having to force myself to swallow. I also had the continuous urge to spit, but I didn't have the energy to get up. Yes, it was a fabulous night.
We did have a fun day yesterday; I got away from school around noon and Jack had the day off, so we went out to the Olive Garden for lunch and then rented School of Rock (see Plug of the "week" to the left). My original plan was for us to see a movie in the theater, but I didn't feel like seeing a horrific display of disturbing behavior (in Monster or Mystic River), nor was I in the mood for an epic (Cold Mountain), even though I do want to see each of these movies eventually. The only thing playing that I really did want to see was Girl with a Pearl Earring, but we had missed the first showing and it wasn't showing again until after 6, which is when we'd have to pay full price for a ticket. Yuck. I wasn't in the mood for that either, so we went to Blockbuster instead! This summer, we're going to follow Steve's (Lauren's boyfriend's) lead and try Netflix for a month; summer is better, because then I'll have time to watch enough movies to get our money's worth out of joining! Until then, we frequent Blockbuster. Ho hum.
It's been quite humid all week, leading me to wonder why I've bothered to straighten my hair four out of the five mornings I went to school. As soon as I spent a minute outside, it was back to poofy/frizzy, so I've ended up pulling it back! It's so nice that it's starting to be long, but I definitely don't enjoy it when it's wavy and annoyingly big. This weekend, I'll be straightening the house in preparation for Mom/Bill and Mimi/Popop's visit next week, which is going to be such fun once I figure out activities for us. I think I mentioned before that we'll be going to New Orleans on Thursday and eating at Emeril's restaurant, but other than that, we have no plans thus far, except that they'll probably want to come see my office and stuff at LSU. I can just see myself leading the troop all around campus. =) Actually, I haven't been all around campus, so I'd get lost; that's shaping up to be a bad idea. I'll at least take them to my building and my coffee shop, which are really the two most important buildings I live in besides the library.
I really have no way to end this post that will make sense.
Labels: coffee, school, what to watch
- posted by erica 3/05/2004 03:45:00 PM
- 0 comments
4.30.2003
We had a fun day today. =) Jack came with me to Temple, and after I got out of my one class, we had Philadelphia day. Yes, we live here, but we haven't spent much time at all visiting the actual sights in the city, and we decided there were some things we wanted to do before we moved. We were going to see the Philadelphia Art Museum (picture Rocky running up the steps out front), the Franklin Institute (mostly a science museum with lots of hands-on things), and Independence Hall. Unfortunately, because of timing, we only got to go to the museum, but it was really cool, and we didn't even see half of it. We decided against seeing the Degas exhibit that was there, since it was twice as much money to be admitted to both and our time there was finite, but we saw several of the other collections, and it is a neato place. We were both imagining it being full of just paintings, but they have all these sculptures and furniture and glasswork from back in the day, and they even have pieces of ceilings and rooms from Asia and Europe. We're going to go back and see the rest of it sometime before we leave. If you're in Philadelphia any time, you should definitely take half a day to see it if you're at all interested in history and pretty stuff from other places. =)
We walked back toward City Hall, which was a hike, and we decided to run inside the Verizon store before they closed for Jack to get a replacement antenna on his phone. He's broken it off twice now in his pocket, and lots of people I've seen with the same phone have had the same problem... luckily, Verizon will fix it for free. So then we sat in Starbucks for a while and had frappuccinos, since we had been walking a long way and were very tired from lugging around our museum purchases and my bookbag (with Jack's REALLY HUGE BOOK inside it too... he wanted something to read while I was in class, so he picked the largest book we own besides our dictionary). After the lovely Starbucks experience, we walked the last few blocks to the City Hall station where we had to pick up the trolley, and we went in some shops. (Chestnut Street is a huge shopping district with a wide range of quality... swanky banks next to the Dollar Tree, etc.) Jack finally found some new sneakers, which is VERY exciting... see, the ones he's had for a few years have a squeak that cannot be exorcised, so everyone who spends time around him comes to associate the squeak with him. It has been very helpful, as it has been impossible for him to sneak up on me... but now those days are over, because he found some new ones in a shoe store that was going out of business. =) We also went in a piano store, but the salesman was such a jerk that we left pretty quickly. He obviously didn't take us seriously, even though I told him I was looking to buy a piano within a year or so... whatever. Some people who work in sales need to get into their heads that people with bookbags who look young aren't automatically irresponsible or whatever it is they think we are. I get annoyed with that, even though it doesn't happen to me as much anymore. This guy was basically daring us to explain why we were even in a music store in the first place. Ugh. Anyway, we finally got back on the trolley and came home, just in time for me to make quiche and for us to enjoy a rousing new episode of The West Wing in which the Vice President resigned... SUCH a good show.
On the brighter (and darker) side, I'll be 23 tomorrow! I usually don't advertise my own birthday, but it's been an important year and I'm about to see a lot of changes in my life. Yay, getting old!
We walked back toward City Hall, which was a hike, and we decided to run inside the Verizon store before they closed for Jack to get a replacement antenna on his phone. He's broken it off twice now in his pocket, and lots of people I've seen with the same phone have had the same problem... luckily, Verizon will fix it for free. So then we sat in Starbucks for a while and had frappuccinos, since we had been walking a long way and were very tired from lugging around our museum purchases and my bookbag (with Jack's REALLY HUGE BOOK inside it too... he wanted something to read while I was in class, so he picked the largest book we own besides our dictionary). After the lovely Starbucks experience, we walked the last few blocks to the City Hall station where we had to pick up the trolley, and we went in some shops. (Chestnut Street is a huge shopping district with a wide range of quality... swanky banks next to the Dollar Tree, etc.) Jack finally found some new sneakers, which is VERY exciting... see, the ones he's had for a few years have a squeak that cannot be exorcised, so everyone who spends time around him comes to associate the squeak with him. It has been very helpful, as it has been impossible for him to sneak up on me... but now those days are over, because he found some new ones in a shoe store that was going out of business. =) We also went in a piano store, but the salesman was such a jerk that we left pretty quickly. He obviously didn't take us seriously, even though I told him I was looking to buy a piano within a year or so... whatever. Some people who work in sales need to get into their heads that people with bookbags who look young aren't automatically irresponsible or whatever it is they think we are. I get annoyed with that, even though it doesn't happen to me as much anymore. This guy was basically daring us to explain why we were even in a music store in the first place. Ugh. Anyway, we finally got back on the trolley and came home, just in time for me to make quiche and for us to enjoy a rousing new episode of The West Wing in which the Vice President resigned... SUCH a good show.
On the brighter (and darker) side, I'll be 23 tomorrow! I usually don't advertise my own birthday, but it's been an important year and I'm about to see a lot of changes in my life. Yay, getting old!
Labels: coffee, husband things, Philly
- posted by erica 4/30/2003 11:12:00 PM
- 0 comments
7.07.2002
Yeah, so Jack's car has had some issues... this is part of the reason I haven't written in over a week. =) We went to Baltimore as scheduled to help Jack's sister move down the street from her old apartment to the new one, and that was fun, but when we tried to leave and got onto the highway, we ran out of gas because neither of us was paying enough attention to the gas gauge. Long story short... we ended up frying his fuel pump, which, in a '95 Cavalier, requires taking out half of the gas tank... so we spent $800 on the repairs, plus our train tickets to get back home the NEXT day, after we had the AAA guy tow the car to the Chevy dealer down the road. Earlier on Saturday afternoon, we had realized that the A/C was broken yet again, so now that the car is finally back up in Philly (Jack went to get it yesterday), we can take it back to our Chevy dealer and have them rethink the problem, since it obviously is not just the valve they've replaced twice already. Enough about that... the weather is a little cooler this week, so we are not quite so unhappy as we might otherwise be. =)
I had training at Borders all this past week, which was really cool, so now I know all sorts of stuff. I don't know how I ever found anything in the store before, honestly, because you really have to have help to find a LOT of stuff there. =) I guess that's how the company insures that the employees will not become obsolete. I get to work in the music section a few days this next week, and I'm also going to be "cross-trained" in the cafe. We watched this video on Saturday called Espresso 101, and I learned that basically everyone I know (including me) stores their coffee the wrong way. It was exciting. (Hey, Jack just broke a glass lamp shade. Random occurrence. He's okay, but he's mad because he liked that lamp.) Anyway, I'll basically be the person who knows a little bit about everything in the store, because I couldn't narrow myself down to one area (sound like me??), so I'll work in music, the book info desk, the registers, and the cafe depending on where they need the most help. Yay. =)
Today we went to Lancaster, because Mom and Bill left and needed us to take Daisy to the kennel. They went on a cruise with Mom's brother and sister-in-law and my grandparents, because June 14th was my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary! It was very exciting, and they wanted to share it with their kids, so they're on a cruise for a week from NYC to the Bahamas and then back. Woohoo! Anyway, the kennel opened today after they had to leave, so we took the wonder-Lhasa to camp. =) I had a nice day off, and I get to go back to the working world tomorrow, this time not in "training" mode! The other three people I trained with and I did some real work the last two days of training, like working the registers and helping people from the info desk, but we get to do it all day from now on. I'm excited. I get some great benefits at this place, and I think it's going to be a neat job to have... plus I'll know when Harry Potter Book 5 is coming out before ANY of you will, so ha. Just kidding. ~E
I had training at Borders all this past week, which was really cool, so now I know all sorts of stuff. I don't know how I ever found anything in the store before, honestly, because you really have to have help to find a LOT of stuff there. =) I guess that's how the company insures that the employees will not become obsolete. I get to work in the music section a few days this next week, and I'm also going to be "cross-trained" in the cafe. We watched this video on Saturday called Espresso 101, and I learned that basically everyone I know (including me) stores their coffee the wrong way. It was exciting. (Hey, Jack just broke a glass lamp shade. Random occurrence. He's okay, but he's mad because he liked that lamp.) Anyway, I'll basically be the person who knows a little bit about everything in the store, because I couldn't narrow myself down to one area (sound like me??), so I'll work in music, the book info desk, the registers, and the cafe depending on where they need the most help. Yay. =)
Today we went to Lancaster, because Mom and Bill left and needed us to take Daisy to the kennel. They went on a cruise with Mom's brother and sister-in-law and my grandparents, because June 14th was my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary! It was very exciting, and they wanted to share it with their kids, so they're on a cruise for a week from NYC to the Bahamas and then back. Woohoo! Anyway, the kennel opened today after they had to leave, so we took the wonder-Lhasa to camp. =) I had a nice day off, and I get to go back to the working world tomorrow, this time not in "training" mode! The other three people I trained with and I did some real work the last two days of training, like working the registers and helping people from the info desk, but we get to do it all day from now on. I'm excited. I get some great benefits at this place, and I think it's going to be a neat job to have... plus I'll know when Harry Potter Book 5 is coming out before ANY of you will, so ha. Just kidding. ~E
Labels: bookstore life, car issues, coffee, family
- posted by erica 7/07/2002 11:18:00 PM
- 0 comments
