Our Three Words

Our family is a really big fan of the "My Three Words" segment they have on the weekend edition of Good Morning America on ABC.  For those of you not familiar, people upload video or photos of themselves holding signs with just three words to describe an event that is going on in their life and GMA edits these videos and photos together to a song to make a little montage of "my three words" moments.

Well, we decided to upload to GMA our own video for "my three words."  We have no idea if the show will choose to use it in the segment, but we wanted to share it anyway!  I know it is hard to see here, but Ellie's sign says "Moving to Boston..." and Maggie's says "So long Minnesota."

Birthday Wishes and Packing Dreams

Today is my baby girl's 7th birthday.  I can't believe how the time flies!  When we moved here to Minnesota Maggie was only 3, and now, four days before we move back to Boston she turns 7.

She has been such a good, understanding girl, as unfortunately her special day happens to fall so close to moving day.  She wanted a make-over party at home, but I had to explain to her that wasn't possible, as our house is basically all packed up and a total disaster area, so she decided on a swimming party at our gym instead.

This is also the first birthday where her Dad isn't here to celebrate with her.  I know that is especially hard for both of them, because Maggie is certainly a Daddy's girl, but I am sure that once we are reunited, they can have a special day watching a Three Stooges marathon!

So Happy Birthday to my sweet, beautiful, funny baby girl.  You bring so much love and joy to our family.  Continue to grow, learn, and just continue being you.  I love you.

Maggie's 3rd birthday party...

 

 

 

 

 

..and now her 7th birthday!

The White Bread of Life

There is no better way to start the day than with a slice of fresh from the oven homebaked bread slathered with butter and jam.  About 99% of the time, we purchase whole grain bread from the bakery at our co-op or the grocery store, but every once in a while, I make this plain, old fashioned, totally delicious, hearty american white bread.

Baking bread is much simpler than a lot of people think, especially if you are like me, and use a stand mixer to kneed the bread, rather than kneeding it by hand.  Maybe someday I will splurge on my dream bread maker, a Zojirushi, but for now, my humble Kitchen Aid mixer will have to do.

One note on this recipe, do splurge and use the bread flour, as it really makes a better loaf of bread.

All-American White Bread (from King Arthur Flour)
1 cup + 2 tablespoons, to 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1 heaping tablespoon honey
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons soft butter
4 cups bread flour (I use King Arthur)
1/3 cup dry milk or 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk granules

1) Mix all of the ingredients in the order listed, and mix and knead — by hand, or using a stand mixer — to make a smooth dough. It won't be particularly soft nor stiff; it should be smooth and feel bouncy and elastic under your hands.

2) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, or large (8-cup) measuring cup. Cover it, and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till it's become quite puffy, though not necessarily doubled in size.

3) Gently deflate the dough, and shape it into a fat 9" log. Place it in a lightly greased 9" x 5" loaf pan.

4) Cover the pan, and let the dough rise for 60 to 90 minutes, till it's crowned 1" to 1 1/2" over the rim of the pan. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.

5) Bake the bread for 20 minutes. Tent it lightly with aluminum foil, and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, till it's golden brown. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center will read 195°F to 200°F.

6) Remove the bread from the oven, and turn it out onto a rack to cool. When completely cool, wrap in plastic, and store at room temperature.

Where Did You Get Those Socks?

Have you discovered LittleMissMatched yet?

Our daughter, Maggie, has always had a thing about her socks.  When she was an infant, Paul and I would joke that her Native American name is "Maggie-One-Sock" because as soon as we would put socks on her cute little feet, she would inevitably kick one of them off and happily spend the day wearing only one sock.  It didn't matter how many times we would stick that stupid sock back on her foot; a few minutes later, off it would come.

When she started dressing her self, Maggie would always, always wear two different socks.  Even if I would lay out clothes for her with a matched pair of socks, she would emerge from her room wearing miss-matched socks.  When I would ask her why she wore two different socks, she would reply "It looks better."  Can't argue with that logic.  It got to the point where I wouldn't even bother matching the socks out of the laundry, and it certainly helps with the mystery missing sock dilemma.

So when I found LittleMissMatched, I knew I struck gold!  They make socks that come in packages of three "miss-matched" socks!  Here is what they write about their product on their Facebook page:

"Here’s how it all started: We were sitting around talking about the pesky problem of the lost sock. You know, the one the dryer always eats? We thought, “Why do we have to wear matching socks, anyway? Maybe matching is overrated?!” It was one of those "aha" moments. We thought…why not start a company that sells socks that don’t match on purpose? Why not sell them in odd numbers so even if the dryer eats one, it doesn’t matter. And best of all, if you get three socks that mismatch (but coordinate in fabulously fun ways) then you get three choices for a pair instead of just one. Suddenly socks weren’t just boring socks, but a way to express yourself and be kookily creative."

Not only do they make socks, but leg warmers, clothing, cute accessories, bedding, and other adorable items.

Let's just say, after our her first pair of LittleMissMatched socks, Maggie was hooked (and I was too!)

Our Last Hurrah

As mentioned in a previous post, last Sunday I took Ellie and Maggie to the Mall of America for a last visit before our move out of state.  I was happy to do so, as the girls absolutely love that place, and the excitement they get from going there makes me feel great.

Getting ready to go on the Brain Surge

 I must admit, when we first moved to the Twin Cities from the East Coast I was as excited as they were to get a glimpse of the world famous "Biggest Mall in America."  The mall was one of the first venues I visited after our move.  While the shear size of it is impressive, I quickly came to the realization that every other person who lives in this area knows: it's just a mall.  A mall with an amusement park in the middle, extra parking headaches, and people walking around taking pictures of themselves and their loved ones in the mall, but a mall nonetheless.

Lunch at Tucci Bennuch

Anyhoo, the girls and I had a fun day there, and I am glad we went.  I hope we built some lasting memories of our time here.

Making new friends at Build-a-Bear

13 days and counting!

Spoonfudge!

Have you heard about Spoonfudge?  I made my first purchase of this product before Christmas and I was hooked!

What is Spoonfudge!? It is a dreamy, creamy, decadent treat. Rich and smooth gourmet fudge is poured into jars and eaten directly from the jar with the attached spoon.  Now, my having the sweet tooth that I have, this can be very dangerous.  Luckily (or unluckily) they only take orders a few times a year.  And luckily (or unluckily, if you are like me and will eat a whole jar in one sitting!) the order window for the Valentine's season is now open!!!

I am telling you, take advantage; give it a try.  You will love it.

Quinoa Madness!

As I mentioned in another post, I am in the process of cleaning out our kitchen cabinets in anticipation of our move to Boston in a little over 2 weeks (17 days, to be exact!)  I used up some left over red lentils in a very yummy Spiced Lentil recipe I found, but now I am confronted with a bunch of quinoa.

I have a lot of go to recipes for quinoa, usually in some sort of whole grain salad or curry recipe.  But I wanted to try something a little different.  In my perusing of the Internet, looking for that something interesting, I found exactly what I was looking for!  This fantastic recipe for quinoa pudding!  I am a HUGE rice pudding fan(I also love grape nut pudding.  If you don't know what that is, you need to move to New England!), but have never thought of using quinoa in a pudding.  After making this recipe, I am a convert. Give it a try.

Quinoa Pudding

1 1/2 cups water

3/4 cup quinoa

2 cups soy or almond milk

2 ripe bananas

2 tablespoons brown sugar

salt to taste

1/2 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (you can use vanilla soy or almond milk and omit the extract)

Rinse and drain the quinoa. Bring water and quinoa to a boil in a saucepan over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, until liquid is absorbed. Remove from the heat.

Blend together the milk, bananas, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour the milk mixture into the saucepan with the quinoa.

Place the pan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter and vanilla and serve warm.

You Want To Go Where?

19 days and counting until our move from the Twin Cities to Boston.  It is a rather busy and stressful time. Right now I am, in no particular order:

1. Packing.
2. Dealing with all the little last minute items that need to get done for our tenants to move into the house (cleaners?  rental license? Shouldn't the property manager we hired be dealing with this stuff?).
3. Printing, signing, and scanning and emailing back and forth of 1,253,342.4 documents for the purchase of our new home in Massachusetts.
4. Trying to coordinate a plumber who supposedly "fixed" a minor leak in our toilet, but left us with a larger flood in the bathroom, and a window installer who installed a new window in my daughter's room with a nice crack in the sash.
5. Waiting for my car to be fixed after I was smacked from behind three days before Christmas by some lady in a minivan.  According to the body shop, I have about 10 more days to wait, so until then I get to drive around in a stinky Hyundai Accent rental that doesn't even have power windows or locks.  At least I don't have to pay for any of the repairs, or for the stinky Hyundai Accent.
6. Planning my daughter's 7th birthday party, slated for the weekend before we move.

So, to try to insert a little fun into these next couple of weeks, I asked my girls if there was anything they wanted to do here in Minnesota before we move back to Boston.  Well, they decided.....drum roll please...

Yes, that wonderful way to spend a day (and at least $200 bucks!)  Oh well.  Let the wild rumpus begin!

1. American Girl Store
2. Nickelodeon Universe
3. Underwater Adventures
4. Lego Store
5. Etc, etc, etc.....

Spiced Lentils

As I am starting to go through my kitchen cabinets, cleaning them out in anticipation of our move in three weeks, I am finding that I have a lot of food items I have forgotten about, tucked away behind other things.  The other day I found about 1 cup of red lentils leftover from a curried soup recipe I had made earlier in the year.  I wanted to use them up but didn't have all the ingredients on hand to make the soup, but I did find this recipe on foodnetwork.com that I decided to try, and I am happy I did!

Spiced Lentils (from Foodnetwork.com, with a couple of tweaks by me!)

1 cup red or yellow lentils 4 cups water
pinch of turmeric
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
2 sliced garlic cloves
2 to 3 dried chipotle chiles (the original recipe uses red chiles, but I had these on hand)
1 15 oz. can diced fire roasted tomatoes (I used Muir Glen)

Bring lentils, water, turmeric and ginger to a boil; simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Whisk vigorously; season with salt to taste. Cook cumin seeds, garlic cloves dried chiles in a skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes; cook 1 minute. Stir into the lentils.

The Year That Was

Good morning on this first day of 2011!

Every year on New Year's Eve, my husband and I think back on that we have done and all the significant events of the year past.  This year in particular has been very eventful for our family -- especially the past few weeks, with Paul starting his new job in Boston while the girls and I stayed in the Twin Cities, trying to sell our house and facilitate a move east.

Last night Paul, the girls, and I sat together, munched on popcorn, and watched the movie Up.  After the movie was over, Ellie asked if there was a "message" in the movie.  Yes we told her.  The message is that is isn't a house that makes a home, but the people you share it with.  That message is very apropos to our situation now.  This year it has been proven to us that family makes wherever you set you bags down a home.  And in just over three weeks, we will be together again, making a new home.

Happy 2011 all!

Here is one of our memories for 2010: our vacation in Duluth, MN