A successful failure.

This weekend I endeavored to make an angel food cake with chocolate whipped cream icing (both recipes found on Epicurious here and here). I was headed to a a "favorite things" party on Friday night and needed a treat to take along. The cake turned out beautifully - my best angel food cake yet - and I was really excited to try this icing. I love light, fluffy, whipped cream based toppings.

I had been on a dark chocolate fix lately, thanks in part to my doctor who prescribed it as a natural cough suppressant for my pneumonia, or whooping cough, or whatever it was that was going on with me for the last 4 weeks. The idea of chocolate whip cream made my heart sing. Only I was in a hurry. So I read the recipe and got started - without double checking the amounts. I should have learned by now not to trust my short-term memory so instead of 1/2 cup of milk and 2 cups whipped cream I ended up measuring out 1 1/4 cups milk and compensating by reducing the cream by 3/4 cup.

Long story short, it will not hold stiff peaks regardless how fast you swirl the stuff around in the mixer. It looked like an unusual type of chocolate soup. I gave up, took the cake to the party plain, and popped that chocolate mixture in the fridge. It's a shame to waste all that good whipping cream.

Yesterday we popped that failed topping into the ice cream maker. Once it had completely frozen I drizzled in some melted Ghirardelli 86% cacao chocolate and let it cool and break into thin whispy strips.

The verdict?

It's pretty darn tasty. Not such a bad outcome from my epic failure after all.


BTW- have you ever been to a Favorite Things party? It was pretty fun. Each person brings a few (in our case 3) of something that is their favorite for under $5 each. I brought bright purple nail polish (my current toes of choice) and Lindt Intense Orange chocolate bars. When you arrive at the party, each person put their name on three pieces of paper and dropped them into a bowl. After some chatter and girl talk we started going around the group and sharing what we brought and why it was our favorite. What an interesting way to get to know people!

When everyone had finished, we passed around the bowl of names. We each drew a name, then got the item that that person had brought. (Doesn't it sound strange to say that that?) At the end of the night each person went home with 3 different favorite things brought by others and a whole slew of funny moments. It was a blast and I highly suggest you try it with your friends. It's amazing what you'll learn :) The plan is for ours to be an annual affair. I don't think this idea would ever get old.

Chop chop

Have you ever just needed a change? Reached a sudden realization that you were in a rut? That was me. I've been growing increasingly irritated by how long it takes to do my hair here (long, thick hair + 90% humidity + natural curl on half of my hair = usually damp and/or frizzy locks) and found that I'd pull it up in that sloppy mom-ponytail every single day - after letting it air dry for 2-3 hours that is. Gross. Even if it was really pretty on the days when I would take the time and it would cooperate.



So, it got the chop.

Ignore that the middle pic makes me look like a bobble head doll.

What do you think?

I'm not so sure yet, but it does take only 1/4 the amount of time to dry which is a gold medal in my book. To quote a friend when she took the plunge and went short "I look like a mom." But I'm a mom without a sloppy ponytail who can't wait to show off some really fantastic earrings...

All Hallows Eve

It began as any other day, since Buglet's school doesn't allow costumes at school. Instead they held a Harvest Festival the Friday before. That was quite different than any school function we had ever been to in the sense that it was "laid back" and "minimally organized" as another parent tried to explain to me. We arrived 5 minutes after the affair was to begin and nothing was set up and none of the staff knew where the kids were supposed to be, but the Principal was greeting everyone while dressed as a shark. Eventually the local-apple-tasting tables were set up, the craft tables were accessible, and the music was playing in the black-lit gym. There was not a piece of candy in sight but the kids didn't care. They ran around in costume and had a ball, which made me think of how much we overdo things in the name of fun. Kids don't really need much to be happy.

Also last week we attended our church Halloween party. This was a complete blast as we seriously adore all the littles we live near and seeing them in costume was pretty fantastic.

But back to Monday... the University of Oregon held a Halloween carnival for K-3 grades in the dorms. Random, I know. They had carnival games, pumpkin and cookie decorating, and then trick-or-treating in the dorms. I wasn't sure what to expect but it ended up being really cute and quite fun. At least Squirt had fun.

She snarfed down the cookie she iced as we headed home and went to the little gathering in our apartment's community room - which was interrupted as we saw friends starting to trick-or-treat and ran to join them. More families from the apartments gradually emerged and we all walked around together.  It was a challenge to know where to go as the "come get a 'trick or treaters welcome' sign" memo was not well communicated. We gave out glow bracelets as we meandered around and giggled at the cuteness of so many of the little people.

After which we came home and finally had dinner. Shower, scriptures, and it was time for bed. Tuesday, she got a package of candy from her dad. Which means she got a full basket of candy last Wednesday, a full basket Monday, and a big box yesterday. Today I am thankful for dental insurance.

A good, busy Holiday week for Batgirl.

Longing

"Is it legal in Utah to say you like anything from Starbucks?" was the query posed by His Hotness (in jest, of course) in our very first email conversation. He was referring to the spot on my profile where I proclaimed that Starbucks Gingerbread Macadamia Nut Biscotti is essentially the best stuff on Earth. Or was, since they decided to ignore the fact that I'd purchase mass quantities as soon as it was available and discontinued it. My Starbucks spending dramatically decreased once they ousted my favorite splurge. I was am still crushed.

Which settles it.

I'm making my own.

Finally.

This recipe is not exact, but it's pretty darn close. I went slightly light on the molasses (my jar was empty) and easy on the ginger since I don't really like gingerbread. Oh, the irony. One batch made 16 large biscotti. Since they'll keep for a good long while (in an airtight container) I am set to endure a long, chilly hot chocolate season.

Gingerbread Macadamia Nut Biscotti

(modified from here)

2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup molasses
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 - 1 cup macadamia nuts - whole
4 oz. white chocolate (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter, sugar, and oil beating together in large mixing bow. Add eggs, vanilla, and molasses beating until smooth.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients beating until incorporated and smooth. Add nuts.

Divide dough in half and place a couple inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Using dampened hands, form each mound of dough into a rectangle approximately 5 inches wide.

Bake 30 minutes, then remove from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 300. After the biscotti has cooled for 10 minutes, cut each rectangle into 3/4 inch slices. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet sideways and bake for 10 minutes. Flip the biscotti over and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven (really, why do we ever say this??? It seems evident) and allow to cool on wire rack.

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Using a small spreader or pastry brush, spread white chocolate lightly on the bottom of each biscotti. Place on wax paper or parchment to set. Set the biscotti fairly close to one another but not touching. When all the cookie bottoms have been coated, drizzle remaining white chocolate over the tops.

Make yourself a cup of cocoa (I recommend Steven's Gourmet Dark Chocolate with a teaspoon each of Starbucks Vanilla and Hazelnut syrups) and dip away. Not quite the original, but seriously fantastic nonetheless.

Birthdays

Today is a very special day. Our Little Squirt (Jellie-bellie, little bug, etc.) is turning 5 today. His Hotness was able to spend the weekend in SoCal to celebrate with her and it sounds like they had a fantastic time. Some dear friends offered their home and hosted a small soiree in honor of the birthday girl. From what I hear it was all pink and all Hello Kitty. What else would you expect?

Second marriages are weird things. I mean, she's not technically my flesh and blood but already I am so very attached to that little girl. Big Squirt and I were not able to go visit and I really felt the void. Despite the fact that I am not her mother, and that she has a really good one, I love her more than I can describe and every day that she is not with us it feels as though a part of our family is missing. I have no desire to try and replace her mom in any way. After all, mothers are sacred. What I do hope is to build a positive relationship with her and be someone she can trust and look up to.

Today I'd like to share 10 of my favorite moments this year with my Jellie-bellie. Here, in no particular order (I couldn't rank them if I tried), are 10 moments that fill my heart with joy and happiness when I think of them.

In March, we packed up and drove to SoCal for Spring Break. Jellie-bellie was able to spend the whole vacation with us as the beginning of several weeks with her dad. We did many fun and wonderful things (bowling, Knott's berry farm, basketball lessons in a friend's backyard, accidentally breaking a monitor on the Cal State Fullerton campus, etc) but by far my favorite memory was watching the girls play together at the beach. They would run away from the rolling waves and laugh with endless delight.

For Easter, His Hotness and I hosted Easter Dinner at my house. The girls were spoiled... a natural consequence of being loved my a great many people. Amidst the chaos that ensued (the house was clean when everyone arrived) the girls were playing with my dad. He loves being a grandpa more than I could say and it was so fun to see the girls have just as much fun as he did. 

In May, I took personal leave from work for the first time ever and flew to SoCal for the graduation of His Hotness. Jellie-bellie and I rode with some good family friends and she was my little buddy throughout the multi-hour ceremony. We played with Zoobles from my purse ate pretzels and made silly faces to pass the time. When the length and the sun got to be too much she snuggled up on my lap and almost fell asleep. When I see this picture I remember her cuddled up on my lap waiting for her daddy's name to be called. 

In May/June (?) the girls and I had a sleepover at my house. We watched movies, ate popcorn, and planted flowers. After spending the morning painting flowerpots the girls got to plant the seeds we bought that morning just for them. Jellie-bellie was so thrilled to be scooping soil since she "doesn't have a yard to dig in." I have never seen a child so excited about scooping soil.

For my birthday, Jellie-bellie picked out the Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcake mix for me. The girls and I made them together and this was the moment where the tension was sooooo thick they wanted to eat the cupcakes more than they could contain. Jellie-bellie ate one of the giant sprinkles when I wasn't looking and didn't like it, so we put a blueberry on hers instead. That little girl can eat more blueberries in one sitting than anyone I have ever met. 

At the end of June, one of Big Squirt's neighborhood friends invited the girls to a birthday party. Jellie-bellie was so very excited to tell me all about the pinata and the little treat bags they brought home. So often she would hide or just ignore me when I pulled out the camera but this day she was so giddy that she gave me a whole series of silly poses. She was glowing with happiness!

Fourth of July was spent at a neighborhood block party. The girls quickly tired of the fireworks and regalia but once I pulled out the glow bracelets a whole new world opened up! She was so animated and bouncy as you can tell by the swirly red and purple at the bottom of the picture. 

For family night one evening in July we discussed the meaning of temples and the kids built their own out of play-doh. Her pretend bashfulness is deceived by the jubilation shown by her one visible eye and I love this.  This was an abnormally quiet moment of silliness for her. How cute it was!

One of my very favorite things about His Hotness is the way he loves to cook. Since it's something he enjoys, Jellie-bellie has been actively in the kitchen with him since before she could walk.  She LOVES to help him cook. This was the first time we made spaghetti with our Kitchen Aid pasta roller and she was really helpful feeding the dough. It makes me so happy to see her love to be in the kitchen with her Daddy.

In July we went out on the boat with my parents. She was so excited to be there and was really happy once the tubes were inflated. After a few mild conflicts with Big Squirt over speed, Jellie-bellie got a turn by herself in the tubes where she could tell us for herself if she wanted to go faster or slower. She loved every second of it. I think she would've stayed out there for an hour if we'd let her.

Since our new family is still so young, I have no doubt there will be numerous more times just like these in the future. For now, I'll just start counting down until Christmas break when I get to see her again. I love that little bug.

Density

This is such a simple demonstration that really blew Squirt's mind. She'd had a bit of a rough day so a part of me wanted to skip this and just have her play in her room - but I realized that we both needed it. Again, we did something quick and easy that I used in my classroom. The concept is density and it can be done using supplies from your kitchen.

Kids (and many adults) grasp density as being an idea of weight, even though in reality that isn't quite right.

We started by dropping an egg into a glass of water. I asked her what she thought would happen, she said it would sink, and then I had her test that.

She was right, of course.

So then I had her add salt (a lot) to the other glass and asked her what she thought would happen. Since I'd had to convince her that this would be a good idea I'd already mentioned that we were going to make the egg float. She guessed that adding the salt would make the egg float.

It takes a lot of stirring to dissolve the salt. If you have more time, you can heat the water to make the salt dissolve more quickly - but you'll want it to cool to room temperature again before little hands are playing with it.

Even though she *knew* what would happen, I'm not so sure she believed it.

Even I didn't expect it to be so exciting! She loved that the egg bobbed up to the surface after she dropped it in the glass.

Supplies:
2 eggs
2 glasses of water, filled to the same height
salt - a lot

Drop one egg into a glass of water. What happened to it? Do you think anything will be different if we add salt to the water?

Pour in a good amount of salt into the second glass and stir it to dissolve. Place the egg into the glass. If it doesn't float, use the spoon to pull the egg out (Squirt tried to reach in and spilled the salt water all over the kitchen), add more salt, stir to dissolve, and try again. The amount of salt you need to add will vary based on the size of your glass so just go for the test and try again approach. The egg should float in the salty water.

**In class I'd then add food coloring to the plain water, gently and slowly pour it into the container holding the salt water (down the side of the container or into a spoon to slow it's fall) and the kids could see the layering that forms because of different densities of water. Then if you add the egg again you will see it float between the two layers. We attempted this and had major food coloring issues and had a hard time pouring it slowly enough to keep the layers from mixing. I will save that one for when she's a little older and we can talk about layering in the Ocean.**


As a mom this is how I explain it: What is heavier, the water or the egg? {the egg} That's why the egg sinks. When we add the salt to the water and mix it up we make the water heavier and the egg floats.

As a teacher this is how I explain it: Density is a measure of how much "stuff" is packed into a certain amount of space. Water is less dense than the egg so the egg sinks. When we add salt to the water and the salt dissolves, you will notice that the level of the water hasn't really changed. Now, instead of having just the water in that space we've got the salt too. We've packed a whole lot more "stuff" into the same amount of space. This increased the density of the liquid. If we increase the density of the water to more than the egg, then the egg will float. This is the same reason that a can of Coke will sink to the bottom of cooler when the ice is melted but a can of Diet Coke will float. Coke has a lot of sugar dissolved into it which increases the density of the liquid. Diet Coke has a lot less mass of artificial sweetener so the liquid is less dense. Next time you're at a barbecue, check it out!

Related Links:
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/makeaneggfloat.html
http://www.free-science-fair-projects.com/Free-Science-Fair-Project.aspx?ProjectID=5&Title=HowToMakeAnEggFloat
http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/teaching/445/Egg_float.htm
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/jetstream/ocean/ll_diet.htm

Jog-a-thon

It's no secret that kids are amazing. I mean, anyone who has one (or more) is well aware of that. Today Squirt's school held a jog-a-thon fundraiser. You know the schpeal... the kids get sponsored for each lap they run {or jog or walk} in a certain amount of time... we sponsored her of course and so did her dad. I went to watch and document each leg of the journey.

I could not believe how excited all the kids were to do this. There was an energy in the air as they were motivated to see exactly how many laps they could do. Clearly the teachers did a great job of getting them pumped up for the occasion.

Squirt has been telling me about her jogging at school for a couple weeks now. It seems like she's starting to love it, though I can't tell if that's the jogging or the friends. Right at the start she and her new BFF linked hands and stayed that way almost the entire hour. 

I love shots that show emotion and seriously, she was literally bouncing along the whole time. 

Except when they would pause for a drink between each lap. I think Squirt would have kept going but her friend wanted a drink and she stayed with her friend.

For race bibs the kids wore stickers that the teachers would mark off every time they finished a lap. Here I was thrilled for her but starting to panic. She kept telling me she'd done 2-5 laps at school so figuring that there was no way on this green Earth that she'd hit even 10 I pledged $5 per lap...

On one of the rounds I had the girls pause for a pic. Here they are after 10 laps.  A quick break and then off again! By this point they were walking the first half of the lap, picking up to jogging when they tried to catch other friends or were roughly halfway around.

The final count... 15 laps!!! At 5 laps to 1 mile that means Squirt ran/jog/walked 3 whole miles today. I am uber-impressed!

I think she was thrilled to have me there. She kept wanting to show me who all her friends are. She's old enough to want privacy sometimes. Having her want to involve me in her school life took the edge off the "she's-growing-up-way-too-stinking-fast" feeling.

She was in kindergarten the year I graduated and took a teaching job. I remember walking her to the bus stop for the last time and attending the school's end-of-year dance festival. I cried knowing it was possibly the last time I would get to participate in any of her daytime school events since I'd be working from that point on. How little I knew about where my life would be in a few short years. I don't know how long I'll be able to do this but it sure is incredible {it is making me miss our Little Squirt something fierce}. How awesome this is.