Home Made Blueberry Muffins

Right now I am supposed to be preparing for my lecture tonight on the Constitution.

Instead I am blogging.

I had no idea teachers put off preparing as much as I put off doing homework.

Now you know.

On Monday I made fresh blueberry muffins. Now despite what the recipe claims I think it is impossible to make a bad blueberry muffin. You can make muffins that are less good than others - the ones with the dried blueberries in the mix come to mind - but they are not bad. What I didn't realize is that it is possible for me in my tiny, cramped kitchen with loads of three-year-old interruptions help to make AMAZING blueberry muffins. This was a joyous day for me. And for Russ - who loves blueberry muffins. Who doesn't?

Secret #1 Sour Cream. Sour cream is used in a lot of quick breads - and in this case muffins. It helps add moisture. That is all I know. But using sour cream rather than plain yogurt also adds a great flavor that works really well with.....

Secret #2 Fresh Blueberries. We live in a part of the country where fresh blueberries are not..inexpensive. However it is well worth the splurge to use them instead of frozen, canned, or blueberries from a ...mix. (FOOD DOES NOT COME IN BOXES. Except mac and cheese, that my kids eat. It is my not-so-secret shame.)

Secret #3 Easy Topping. Cinnamon Sugar. Dip the muffin top in butter. Then cinnamon sugar - bingo.

The muffins are long gone. I think they made it 48 hours but I'm not sure. But their memory lives on in our happy hearts and jiggly thighs.

Dolls

We have quite a few dolls around this house. We have stuffed animals of every variety. Quite a few bears. A cat and a dog. We have a stuffed Muppet - Abby Cadaby. We have five little baby dolls. You would think that with such a variety of lovedness to push around in a stroller, dress up in clothes, and take to the doctor, the only problem would be making sure that they all get the attention that they need. Not so my friend. Not so at all.
   There is one doll that is well - the popular girl. But unlike the popular girls in my school growing up,  she doesn't have exceptionally cute hair (she sports the trendy style all our dolls have of no hair.) She doesn't have beautiful eyes, although they do open and close, which is a nice feature. She is made entirely of plastic, while our other dolls have cloth bodies with plastic heads and appendages. I guess that inability to biodegrade is an attractive feature in baby dolls.
       This doll - I believe her name is Baby Lexi, but it might be Baby Dakota these things are fluid around here - is the soul focus when she comes on the scene. Abbie and Savannah loose interest in any other play things and immediately begin an all out screaming, grabbing, crying yelling match over who gets to play with her. The poor baby doll was sent to time out today for causing such commotion.
        The other odd feature about said baby is that Abbie prefers her to be clothed, while Savannah likes nudity. So each time one sister sneaks the doll away from her unsuspecting sibling, the doll is brought to me to be either clothed or stripped down to her birthday suit - until the sibling notices and the yelling begins again.

Pesto

Thus far I have kept to my goal of making one new dish every week. Not so good about the blogging about it part. Last week I made pesto from scratch and served it over pasta. A few words about pesto from scratch. Fresh basil - $. Pine nuts - $$. I was surprised, and so was my wallet to learn that pine nuts were $7.00 for about a cup at Walmart. Walmart! The bastion of cheap food. But in order to keep to my goal I sucked it up and bought them.

While making the pesto I figured that I should at least try the pine nut. We don't eat nuts around hear much due to peanut allergies (Most nuts are all processed in the same factory which means I am also denied almonds, walnuts, pecans....do I sound deprived?) I mean at seven dollars they had better be good right? I waited until I toasted them and stuck one in my mouth. Well... they aren't bad but they sure aren't seven dollars good. Alas.

Thankfully pesto is very easy to make. Stick the basil, garlic, pine nuts, oil, salt, and pepper in the food processor. Add Parmesan cheese afterward.  I made the creamy version which added ricotta. Yum! The trick my cookbook suggested. Before adding the basil to the food processor bruise it with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin to bring out the flavor. I did it, but having no control group I can't say if it was better or worse than not doing it.

Overall I can say that I love pesto - on sandwiches. For whatever reason it just didn't fit my bill on pasta. I could have been the whole wheat pasta I am trying to switch to, or possibly that I didn't make very much but overall I think that I just like marinara or Alfredo sauce too much.Oh well....

This week (hopefully today!): Fresh Blueberry Muffins!

Random Thoughts Friday

I haven't done a random post for awhile, so in the spirit of true randomness here we go.

I have been working on www.blurb.com to print my blog into a book. It has been a lot of fun to go back reminisce the last few years, and it has made me much more committed to this form of journalling/scrapbooking/time wasting. The software they give you to format your book is maddening, but overall I am impressed.

This week we went to the aquarium. Bless the person who made the annual pass $26 for my family. This January gray weather has made it most necessary indeed.

Savannah's vocabulary never ceases to surprise me. She knows mom, dad, abbie, grandma, grandpa, shoe, all done, dog, cat, Elmo, Nemo, milk, hot dog, poopy, car, coat, up, boot, bear, bird, book, story, teeth, and zebra. I wonder what the randomness of this means about her life.

I am really enjoying my class this semester, although I wish people could be more civil toward different viewpoints. Sigh.

Last week my sister-in-law blogged about how she doesn't commemorate "firsts" in the life of her second daughter as well as she did with her first. I am feeling the same guilt.

Abbie has been using the word embarrassing (or 'barrassing') to express anger. For example. "Mom you are not being nice to me. It is so barrassing!

Russ in Technicolor

I didn't ask for this!

Saturday is usually "Girls-get-to-play-with-Daddy" day and therefore the highlight of everyone's week. Unfortunately, daddy had quite a few freelance projects that he has been working on until the wee hours of the morning. So Saturday morning he took a break and went cross-country skiing in the morning and...back to the computer to work for the rest of the day. Everyone was disappointed at the loss of daddy daughter time.

Mommy - in a desperate attempt to still make the day fun - went to Grandma and Grandpa's  - second only to Disneyland as the happiest place on earth. Within minutes, Abbie had roped Grandpa into playing jump rope with her, only to tug the rope out of his hands and giggle hysterically as if she had just played some sort of prank (like putting rice in his bed!). My dad, who feels that teasing is the best way to tell someone you care, thought this was wonderful. The joking around continued throughout the day.

Just as my dad left to run errands he reached over and tickled Abbie, who was now hard at work making cookies. She turned around and yelled,

" I didn't ask for this!"

When we all broke out laughing Abbie repeated it for the rest of the day!

The New Best Recipe:All New Edition

Well what they lack in title creation they make up for in food creation. For my birthday my friend gave me this fabulous cook book. The authors of the New Best Recipe Cookbook have taken each dish, tried dozens of recipes, tweaked and altered until their taste testers have declared it the best recipe for that dish. And while best is clearly subjective these recipes are absolutely amazing. In addition - and possibly the best aspect of this cookbook is that prior to every recipe the authors explain how they came to the conclusions they have about ingredients, cooking styles, and times. They explain the science behind why certain processes (like using 4 quarts of water to boil your pasta) actually matter and should not be fudged. I have been reading this cookbook like a novel, and learned so much.

   But even more than that I have made some of the best food in my house to date. I have finally found the perfect lasagna recipe, soft gingerbread cookies, a 10 minute pasta sauce that feels like gourmet, a bolegnese sauce that is to die for -truly, how to keep my rice fluffy and not sticking, and mashed sweet potatoes that will permanently replace their more starchy cousins and more. I have been in heaven.

Let me just tell you one experience (possibly more in the future but one today.) Pasta Bolegnese, which is any kind of pasta with a meat sauce. But not just any meat sauce, pancetta, ground beef, ground pork, and ground veal (The cookbook swears this comes in a packaged "meatloaf mix" but of the three grocery stores I've tried, no one has heard of such a thing.) So I just made it with pancetta mixed in the food processor, ground beef and ground pork.
  The meats are only the beginning to this amazing dish. The ground beef and pork is put into the pan, but before it has a chance to brown you add milk! Yes milk! Who would have known but milk tenderizes meat so that instead of little meat pellet chips you end up with tiny soft pieces of meat throughout the sauce. YUMO! Onion, carrot and dried mushrooms(re hydrated, with the water saved for later), canned whole tomatoes and garlic  are added to the mix along with white wine (I didn't have the time or money to find cooking wine so apple juice substituted at our house.)

The recipe says you can have a fabulous sauce in 45 minutes (most of that simmering time) -- they didn't factor in children interrupting every 2 minutes with crises beyond imagination (really you would never guess how tragic some things can be), but even with interruption the dinner was ready in just over an hour. It was divine. Of course the girls didn't eat anything but the noodles, but Russ was happy.

Hair

My hair is and always has been stick straight. I have used defusers. I have used curlers, I have used a curling iron. And I hate to admit it but, when I was younger, much younger. I got perms called body perms that were just supposed to add volume to my listless tresses. Each effort failed miserably -- all of them.Oh I can get curls for an hour or two, and with the perms a day or two. But it has never taken long before the body just collapses.
As I've gotten older I have come to embrace and even welcome the straightness of my hair. Or so I thought. My girls have inherited my hair. Straight as a board.

However this is when I realized that I might not have completely come to terms with my curl-less hair. I desperately love to curl theirs. Now that our church is at 11:00 I have the chance to give them a bath in the morning and put in the never fail sponge curlers. Yes, my mom tried these as well, and they worked. But they are not to be recommended past age five.  Thankfully my girls LOVE the curlers, and the curly hair. Abbie always tells me as I take out the rolls, "I look DARLING!" and they both do.

 (By the way I know that isn't the greatest picture of Savannah, and someday she will probably hate me for it. But truth be told, I wasn't too pleased with her squirminess when I was trying to take this shot, so this is what it is.)
I hope though I am not giving them a false hope for their lives, because if the past is any indication of what the future holds, they are going to have to embrace the straight. I hope it doesn't take them as long as it took me.

Julie & Julia

About a week before Christmas I borrowed my friend's copy of Julie and Julia.


I still have it (sorry Brenda).
I have watched it three times.
I have also watched all of the special features, minus commentary.


What does this say about this movie and about me? First, the movie is wonderful! Meryl Streep is such a strong woman and amazing actor that she portrays Julia Child spot on. Amy Adams is just adorable. And there is delicious food, lots of it everywhere, in almost every scene. It is about two women who love food, and love creating it. It is about romance but even more than just romance it is about how really great food helps us to connect with those around us. It creates shared moments in time where we pause from our lives and savor together....Okay maybe the move isn't about that exactly, but I do believe that food does this and it tastes good.

What does the fact that I've watched this movie three times in the last three weeks say about me?

1. I am being irresponsible with my very limited free time - possibly.
2. I am trying to live vicariously through these characters that are able to focus so much of there lives on cooking uninterrupted - probably.
3.  I am plotting how every evening, I too can cook amazing dishes in the context of my own distraction but love filled life  to savor and enjoy - most definitely.

Abbie Skiing Pictures

When we went skiing on Christmas Eve my brother was unable to ski with us, so he stayed at the bottom of the kiddie hill and took photos of all of the little girls making their way down the mountain. Now while this might not look like much to some, this man - I can't even remember his name - is my hero. He did what I lack the skill and the patience to do - help her love skiing. (Note I didn't say help her  ski, there is a difference, but she thinks she can ski and she likes to ski, and at three, that is what matters.)   I was so excited and proud of Abbie and can't wait for our next chance to go!  It is my dream that we can all go skiing as a family when they get older.

Safron

(Please feel free to ignore this post if food doesn't make you swoon. I deeply love food, and am highly motivated and entertained by it.)

Tomorrow is game night with my siblings. My sister in law and I offered to make dinner. (Okay so I volunteered her to help me.) I am making a Moraccan Lentil Stew I had at a friends house that is to die for and she is making naan bread. YUMO! Today I was shopping for ingredients. First Walmart. If you have read this blog at all you know my feelings toward the store.  Safron - $15.49. It in an envelope, in a standard size seasoning container. The weight states.03 oz. Now I had been told that safron is expensive, but I am starting to realize that this is probably traded illegally. I mean who puts a spice in an envelope in a spice jar?  I kept looking.


The next store is Smiths (They have cereal on sale as well.) No luck, same senerio higher price.


Now one of the few perks of where I live is that there are three, yes three middle eastern food stores within a few blocks of my house. I try the closest first. I open the door and am barraged with the smells of every good spice known to man. All the spices are in bulk right next to the entrence. I don't know if it was deliberate but it definitely made me want to give them lots of money to have those smells in my home. It was also encouraging that most of their spices are much more reasonably priced than I find at standard grocery stores. Unfortunately they are out of safron (which is kept behind the counter). Fortunately they have tahini which is a seasame paste for making hummas (Yum number 2).

On to Middle Eastern Market number 2. The wonderful lady at the cash register only had a 4"x4"x.5" container of safron...for $39.99. But she told my about store number three.

Finally at a Pakistani store (I only know this because the lady at the previous store said the owner was Pakistani) a nice middle aged gentleman gives me a sellection of safron, all from behind the counter. I bought two teaspoons for $6.00.  I have never cooked with saffron before so I dont know which spice is responsible for which flavor when I have eaten middle eastern food. But I must say this had better be worth all of the effort.

On, the up side, I think I will be shopping at these stores more often. I love the smell!

December and Christmas

We have had family in town since December 16th when Russ's mom flew in and immediately started watching our children while I took Russ to the best concert we have every been to for his birthday. Bela Fleck and the Flectones Christmas. Listen it is AWESOME. There is a reason he has won more Grammys than any other artist.

We enjoyed the next few days with Laura as she reenthroned herself as the premeire playmate for my children, and then she was off to Russ's sisters home.  But while Laura was at our house my brother and his wife arrived in town. So Abbie and Savannah have been well entertained by many non-parental people who love them for a few weeks now.

On Christmas Eve we continued the Ebert family tradition of going skiing. However this year my parents went crazy got brave and wanted all the grandchildren daughters to go with us. All I can say is that the Solitude ski school instructors do not make enough money. I don't know how much they make, but it is not enough. They took my shy, cautious, three year old with zero pain and discomfort tollerance and made her love the hour she spent skiing down the mountian. She now says she "LOVES' skiing. Thank you Solitude!

Christmas Eve night we spent having a nice dinner with my family. I can honestly say I have been more excited for Christmas this year than I have since being a child. Abbie raced down as soon as she awoke Christmas morning and tore through her presents, overwhelmed and in awe at what she considered a big pile of loot. (This was all captured on our new video camera - our loot - from my parents.) Savannah slept in for an hour and then joined in the fun! There really is nothing like seeing your kids so excited.

This week has been spent continuing the holiday parties and spending time with cousins. All in all a wonderful time of the year. We have been very blessed this year and have enjoyed taking the time to revel in our greatest blessings- our family.