Archive for November, 2010

>Lately, I’ve had a bit of a sweet tooth and am learning to enjoy my food differently that ever before. I love shopping on Etsy and my new favorite search (move over vintage) is the plants and edibles category for organic baked goods. Last week I ordered up some cookies from JannettesPattisseree. They arrived this morning. I tried the Pomegranate Mint Lime Tea Cookies and they were pretty amazing. They were bigger than I expected and the taste is equally fantastic. If you have a sweet tooth like I do I would give this shop the Lauren Alexander seal of approval!

>
Tree’s up? Check. But far more interesting; can you name one of the artists whose work is proudly on display in my living room? If you can guess both I’ll give you a present!

>Since we’ve been celebrating my daughter’s birthday and her adoption finalization you might think I would want to take it easy on Thanksgiving and allow a pro grandma or something to make me my Thanksgiving meal. You would think wrong! I have been really interested in cooking lately and making my own Thanksgiving meal is definitely a challenge I am interested in. I am planning, shopping, collecting recipes, tips and all that. It will be a small group – just me and my house family. So, no need to go all crazy with a room full of food. But I will be preparing quite a bit of new foods and we’ll see if it is delicious or not. My mom handed down some old china she had in her attic (not used since 1990 says the newspaper it was packed in). And I am excited to decorate my table with a feast on Thursday. So what do you like to make on Thanksgiving?

>I can’t let the weekend pass without mentioning the wonderful amazing thing that became officially official in the legal sense. My daughter’s adoption was finalized on National Adoption Day, Nov. 20th. We traveled 3 hours to the city where she was born where 37 other children from the same foster agency were also celebrating and finalizing adoptions. I didn’t think I would be too emotional but during the opening remarks a judge spoke and addressed the need for days like these celebrations to help them through the rest of a tough year that sees a lot of tribulations for children who are in need of family stability. Our story is pretty quiet. We wanted a family, we chose adoption, and we were so lucky to have found our wonderful daughter. She’s amazing and a complete person who I believe will have a fantastic future. I consider myself lucky to love her.

>I love this project! It is probably one of my faves to teach. Third graders do it best. They are really open and great at pushing their imaginations. If you have a roll of empty toilet paper, some construction paper, tissue paper, and a few odds and ends you can make a hanging bird sculpture. The inspiration for the bird is Only Only Bird by Alexander Calder.

>
If you had told me 10 years ago that I would some day walk around with a machine in my pocket that makes calls, takes pictures, and streams music from the internet with near perfect quality I would have thought you were crazy. But the future is in my pocket apparently and thanks to Pandora (the poor man’s Ipod) I can walk and walk and walk soaking in all the pretty things and fresh air with pretty fresh new music. The good/evil thing about using Pandora is that it only gives you limited control over what you hear; for example you can tell it what kind of music you like and it will pick songs for you. You can skip the crummy ones. And I often do. But sometimes it magically knows exactly what I will LOVE. Lately, I had been hearing an Alejandro Escovedo song that I assumed was old (the channel plays music across decades thankfully) but soon realized is off the newest album Street Songs of Love. Which I don’t have….? And I call myself a fan. Ooops. We’ll have to see if we can fix that. Anyway – the song is called Down in the Bowery and I can’t find a good Youtube clip but you can hear part of it on the website if you want. I don’t claim to know the song inside and out or anything but the parts that I feel like I get are about pulling someone or yourself towards life, free from the rivets and chains of whatever holds you back. Beautiful.

>I have been craving the salty sweet crunch of pie crust lately. I think it’s just that time of year. I made these little spirals that I remember my mom used to make. It’s the simplest thing in the world. So simple, even I can do it! Buy a already made pie crust, unroll, add a little butter (not a lot!) and your favorite sweet flavors. Here I only put brown sugar and cinnamon. After all, I am really just wanting to eat the crust anyway. But, you could put just about anything in there, I think; chocolate chips, oats, granola even? Hmm….the possibilities seem endless. Roll up the pie crust and if you are picky you cut the little bite sized pieces with a piece of fishing wire or something but I just got a sharp knife and sliced away. I baked them in the oven on a cookie sheet that I forgot to grease. oops – and it was 425 degrees for about 15 or so minutes until the crusts start to brown up. I can’t wait to eat them for dessert tonight. The smell in my house is overwhelmingly appetizing.