Simple Joys

Just a list for today:

dusk -
slender crescent moons
the vespers of robins and cicadas
bats swooping overhead

morning -
library storytime with friends
peaches on sale for a dollar a pound - pie?! cobbler?! crisp?!
donuts from the grocery store bakery because everyone cooperated

afternoon -
finishing a drawing during naptime
team dishwashing
the smell of borscht steaming on the stove

Kitchen water play from a hot afternoon several weeks ago...

It really, really, really needs to rain here.  Actually, I don't know if it is already too late for the Iowa corn crops or not.

Surface Tension

We're big fans of kitchen table science around here: building circuits with play dough, and messing about with oobleck, and soda and vinegar volcanoes, and laser microscopes, and the like...

This was a little science experiment that the smalls and I did way back one sunny February afternoon, investigating the surface tension of milk and how that changes when the fat molecules are bound up by dish detergent.

While ours was not as spectacular as it might have been, I've since heard a detail that might make it more impressive the next time we try.

It still made a nice rainbow in our milk, and we had fun drinking our afternoon tea and watching the colors swirl, as you can see.

 Here is a how-to that I just stumbled across, including the tip about using a toothpick or q-tip.

Making Home-Made Yogurt

I've heard rumblings of interest lately in the process of making yogurt at home, and as it is actually a fairly easy and economical and delicious endeavor, I thought I'd type up my recipe and throw it out there for whoever wants to give it a try.  I make my yogurt in quart jars, and often make and incubate two or three quarts together at a time, which lasts our family about a week.  We eat a lot of yogurt, with granola or fruit for breakfast, and with Indian food, and as an alternative to sour cream or mayonnaise in other recipes.  You can drain the finished yogurt in cheesecloth for a few hours to get Greek yogurt, or for several hours to make home-made cream cheese.  I'm pretty sure that the recipe is scalable, and also open to tweaking, so be fearless and experiment!  If your yogurt doesn't set the first time you try, don't fret and don't throw it out, you can use it for baking (coffee cake, muffins) just fine.  And always save a few tablespoonfuls of your last batch to use as starter for your next.

YOGURT:
makes 1 quart

Materials:
4C Pyrex glass measuring cup
An accurate thermometer - and if you have a digital one with alerts then you don't have to babysit the cooling process!
Clean quart jar(s) - and it hasn't seemed to make a difference if they're sterilized or not
A clean plastic picnic cooler with a tight fitting lid, large enough to hold your jar(s)

Ingredients:
4 C milk - you really can use any type and any fat here!  We use 2% milk from the grocery store; use whatever milk you would normally want to drink.  Higher fat gives creamier yogurt, obviously.
1/4 C powdered milk - optional - some folks think it makes a slightly thicker yogurt and it does add protein.)
1 Tbsp. yogurt starter - if it is your first batch, make sure you buy commercial yogurt that contains 'live and active cultures.'  I'm pretty sure that most brands do, but check the label to be sure!)

Method:
The most important thing with yogurt-making is temperature.  The bacteria we want to put to work are only active at a specific range of temperatures, so make sure your thermometer is accurate!

Working one quart at a time, stir milk and powdered milk together in your glass measuring cup and microwave on high for ~6-9 minutes till milk reaches ~170-180 degrees.  Ever microwave is different, so closely monitor this step till you know your own microwave oven.  Alternately, heat milk in a saucepan on the stove top till it reaches ~170-180 degrees.  Heating the milk is supposed to result in a smoother, more consistent yogurt.

Now take your hot milk and let it cool back down to 120 degrees.  I do this by placing the measuring cup (or saucepan) in a cool water bath in my sink.  If you have a digital thermometer, set it to alert when the temperature drops below 120 degrees; if you don't, check frequently so that the milk doesn't cool too much.  The bacteria are only active between about 110-120 degrees.

While the milk is cooling, scoop 1 Tbsp. of your starter yogurt into your quart jar.  Fill your cooler about a third full with 120 degree water (again, check your temperature carefully, and be prepared to adjust the water level once you get your jars in - they should be fully immersed, but their lids should not be under water) and put the cooler lid back on.

Once the milk has just dropped below 120 degrees, pour a little into the jar and stir it to mix in the yogurt starter.  Then pour in the rest of the milk and give it a good stir.  Screw your lid on tight and place the jar into the cooler to incubate, remembering to cover the cooler again so the water inside stays as close to 120 degrees as is possible.

Repeat method for additional quarts, placing each into the cooler as soon as they are jarred.  Try not to jostle the jars that are already incubating, though!

After about 6-10 hours, overnight, or up to 18 hours or so, take the jars out of your cooler and place them in the fridge to cool and set.  They should be fairly 'yogurty' at this point, but they will firm up a bit more as they cool.  Once cooled you can drain the yogurt in cheese cloth to get a thicker product.  (You can also mix in honey, jam, or other flavors or sweeteners.  I've heard you can do this after incubating but before cooling, but I haven't tried it yet - plain yogurt is just so delicious already!  So experiment!)  Also, I've heard that the longer you incubate the yogurt the firmer and tarter it becomes, but I would suggest you let it go for at least 6 hours, if not more like 8, to make sure it sets up well.  We've 'forgotten' our yogurt for up to 15-18 hours, and it was still very good, so I think there is room to experiment there, too.

Cool for a few hours to let the yogurt set, then enjoy!

Other links:
http://graham.main.nc.us/~bhammel/tscd/misc/yoghurt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt
And if you're really feeling adventurous:
http://thestonesoup.com/blog/2012/03/yoghurt/

Grateful for...

...So many things I've been trying to focus on these past few days.  A good friend here was just diagnosed with breast cancer, and as always when something of this nature happens, it brings a renewed awareness of what is of real importance to my dreams and goals as a mama, wife, daughter, sister, and individual striving to be the best that I can in all the different roles I fill.

  Today I am grateful for my two healthy small ones, who are usually such great friends to each other and collaborators and companions in my day.  I'm grateful for the love and support of my best friend and team-mate in this complicated and sometimes unexpected journey called life.  I'm grateful for family always and friends near and far and the opportunities we are constantly discovering here in this quiet corner of the Midwest.  And I'll lighten-up for a moment and say that I am grateful these hot July days for wading pools and mud-soup pots in the yard and fresh local corn on the cob and coming home laden from the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

  I need to try harder at being patient, staying in the moment and on the smalls' level, and not yelling after repeating myself five or six times.  But I am pretty good at lots of time for hugs and stories and tickle-wrestling on the floor and mama-back rides and parties in the tee pee and messes with oobleck, play dough, and paints.  Right now my kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes soaking in cold dish-water that I never got to wash with 'cause I was outside refereeing the wading pool.  But we had still-warm-from-the-oven home-made bread, farmers market tomatoes and basil, and fresh mozzarella for dinner, and I managed to iron Todd's work shirts, and to sing several rounds each of the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, and Baa Baa Black Sheep with Moo past bedtime, and stayed to hold his hand as he struggled tonight to fall asleep.

  Every day there is a challenge to fit it all in, and things are always left to be dealt with tomorrow.  But I want to remind myself that this is the time that we are together, this is the time that the smalls are little and close, this is the time to embrace the moment, to keep on keeping on, and to be conscious and thankful for both the comforting every-day joys and the wondrous rich depth of my life.

July Already?!?

As the smalls say 'uff da!'  This summer is really flying by.  I have lots of photos to post about our family vacation to Washington and Montana.  And from canoeing and other adventures here.  Stay tuned!

Watercolor mushrooms!

7:30 AM

Eastern Bluebird pen sketch 4/2012

It's just after 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, and smallest small and I are in the kitchen making a batch of cranberry orange scones for us all to devour before we head down to our weekly date with the Farmers Market.  He tips the cups of flour into the bowl and stirs carefully, counts the spoonfuls of baking powder, adds sugar, pours in the cream.  I help guide the mixing spoon as we bring the batter together, counting the turns, careful not to over mix.  I slide the baking sheet into the oven and turn on the light so that he can peer in and watch them rise, golden and brown.

I love spending time like this with him.

Easy, Fast, Yummy Scones
nearly from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together
2 C flour (white+whole wheat)
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 C sugar
then add
1 1/3 C cream (we just used half and half)

Fold together and either plop entire bowl into a greased pie pan or scoop out 6-8 wedges onto a baking sheet.  Bake for 18-20 min.

Additions that we have enjoyed
lemon extract
dried cherries and almond extract
dried cranberries and orange extract

A great start to the weekend to all!

Mochi

And there I went again... The littles and I have been so busy playing outside that I am having a hard time keeping up with the housework, let alone spending extra minutes in front of the computer blogging.  There are some pictures of what we've been up to lately on my Flickr account here.

Last weekend we had a birthday picnic for Roo at the arboretum playground with lots of friends and even more cupcakes.  Hopefully, a good time was had by all.  The birthday girl certainly enjoyed herself, and came home with an armful of hand-crafted birthday cards from all her friends.

One of our friends' little ones is on a gluten free diet, so we made a batch of Hawaiian mochi to bring along as a sweet treat he could share.  There are enough potentially new ingredients in the recipe to make posting it a worthwhile endeavor.  Also, please note that this is seriously easy stuff to whip up, with no raw ingredients, so make it with your smalls and be sure to lick the bowl and spoon afterwards.  Here goes:

Hawaiian Coconut Mochi
from Neil Young (Yes, really.  We went to college with him.)

1 box Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour, or 1 package Dried Sweet Glutinous Rice Flour (And yes, there is a difference between the green package and the red package, so get the green one!)
(We've always been able to find one of these two options at our local grocery store in the Asian foods aisle.)

1 can Coconut Milk (We like this brand and it's is a bit cheaper than the Thai Kitchen brand, so it's what we've always gotten for our Indian/Thai/Hawaiian cooking.  It is also available at our local grocery store.  Yay Hy-Vee!)

2 C sugar
food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9" x 13" pan.
Mix mochiko and sugar in a large bowl.  In a quart measuring cup or medium bowl, combine coconut milk with water to make 3 1/2 C total liquid, and add food coloring to tint.  Stir into the dry mix till completely combined and smooth and pour into pan.  Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour; remove from oven and let stand for a minute or two before loosening the cover - watch out for the hot steam!  Let cool for 3-4 hours before cutting; roll pieces in corn starch to keep from sticking together.  Store tightly wrapped or freeze, and eat it up quick so you can make more!!!  :)

And in other, unrelated news, something keeps digging up my zucchini seeds from the garden and I am starting to get annoyed.  This morning will be the third time I've tried to plant them.  Nothing much else in the garden is being harassed, and so I am wondering if I have some exclusively zucchini-seed-obsessed ground hog living nearby this spring?

We're off to UW Madison to hear Neil deGrasse Tyson give a talk on the Terrace.  I am very excited about this.  I am also a big nerd.

Happy Thursday!

Spring has Sprung

I absolutely did not intend to disappear for more than a month.  But along came spring, Todd's trip to Germany, orchestra concerts and stargazing programs, three cases of pneumonia and one of bronchitis, getting the garden started, and other wild, crazy, busy, and good stuff.

I have a lot of March to catch up on, (and those photos of some of our kitchen table science projects, and a bit about our garden plans, and our Easter egg hunt....), so shall we just dive right in?

It's all fun when your two-year-old and your four-year-old decide they want to be dancers for a bit, with twirly dresses a must.  They raided Roo's closet and came prancing out like this, so pleased and proud of themselves.  Afternoon sunshine makes me want to dance, too.

March 2012: Roo and Moo play Legos for the first time.  Their world will never be the same.  :)

Thanks Grandma Carrell and Uncle Lars for sending out the box of all my old Lego sets, (and my robots and my microscope!!!)

Despite the introduction of novel new toys, I was surprised at how little art got done in the last month... perhaps I was too busy playing with my Legos?

Do you know the Beatrix Potter story about Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle?

I kept thinking I was done, hence the signature, way before I finally decided I WAS done.

But I got there eventually.

I also made a couple of really fabulous cream pies, if I do say so myself.  This one, the coconut cream pie, was especially delightful.  Yum!  P.S. hand-whipped meringue!

This might be really hard to see, but here's a watercolor of mushrooms just getting started, inspired by both Geninne's art and Alicia Paulson's photography.

And I started a rabbit sketch next, because it was almost Easter.

Moo is starting to work on his ABCs.

And I'm finally getting around to my Buttercup 2.0 - in a lovely blue-green Tosh Lace, colorway Wash.

Off to cook dinner.  Have a lovely weekend, all.

Musings

Today I'm feeling very grateful for the chance to be a stay-at-home mama; it's 61 degrees out, cloudy and breezy, and the smalls and I spent two and a half hours bumming around the still-wintery yard, cutting back some of last year's growth, probing the mud with sticks and tracking through the garden beds, and playing on the whale teeter-totter and in the big yellow and red car.

Moo has fallen off the nap schedule this past week, but surprisingly, he's cuddled up in his bed right now, slumbering away.  Roo's at the kitchen sink washing her and Moo's dishes and the silverware; we like this arrangement because it gives me a tiny break and it gives her and Moo the chance to play in the water.  Generally, she washes and he rinses and then she helps him get it all onto the drying rack.  See?  We get by fine without a dishwasher.  Really.

I got some new markers on Monday and haven't had the chance in days to sit down in the studio, so that is next up after I post this.  Pictures soon.

I've been stuck on dinner ideas lately.  Got any suggestions?

Also, I have a cup and a half of heavy cream in the fridge, left over from the flourless chocolate torte, and I'm wondering how to use it up.  Scones?  Or just whip it?  Maybe this calls for an adventure into key lime pie making...?

And I played with my blog layout a smidge yesterday, while waiting for Moo to (not) nap.

Wednesday already?!?

February Wrap-Up

There were a lot of good things happening all month that I didn't get around to blogging about, so here's a peak at some of the not-so-art-related activity going on around here.

 We did a little hiking one sunny weekend.  I love that the smalls are so happy just to be outside poking around with sticks.

 We stocked up on Asian groceries in Madison one weekend, and cooked up some yummy Indian and Thai food over the next few weeks.

 A break for tea and some kitchen table science.  I think I'm going to have to do a separate post about that next.  Also, there's a sneak peek at Moo's completed sweater on the chair behind Roo.

 More bamboo tiles.

And sunbathing kitties.  I think I have a lot to learn about enjoying the moment from both the smalls and the cats.

Chocolate Torte and another finished drawing

For a Valentine's Day experiment I made a flourless chocolate torte for the first time.  And it was amazingly delicious, so I thought I'd better share the recipe here.

Flourless Chocolate Torte:
from the HyVee Seasons holiday mag.

Preheat oven to 350' and
butter and dust with cocoa powder a 9-inch springform pan.

In a saucepan melt
1C butter in
1/4C heavy cream 
over med-low heat, then stir in
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate pieces
till melted and smooth; remove from heat.

In a medium bowl whisk together
5 large eggs
1C sugar and
1/4C cocoa powder
then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until puffed and set, 35-40 minutes.  Allow to cool for 1 hour, loosen sides with a knife, then remove sides of pan.

Seems pretty foolproof to me.  Enjoy!

Also, yesterday I finished the trees and tracks colored pencil.  Here it is.

Trees, Tracks, and Trails, colored pencil, 9" x 12" 2/21/12

 Mid-week already!

2.20.2012

Seven years since my dad passed away.  I'm still striving towards the examples he set in patience, compassion, and in greeting life with open arms, an open heart, and a encouraging smile.  Grateful, as always, for his love and lessons in living.

My Valentine to Todd this year, a sketch of our home, 5" x 7" 2/14/12.

It doesn't get any easier, thinking about how Roo and Moo will never wrestle or hike with their Grandpa Jim; that I have to rely on my memories for certain reminders of how to raise them with love and serendipity.  It is impossible to imagine how life would have been different these past nine years if he had never become ill.  It is hard to reconcile his loss with all the dreams I had for my future when I was just starting out as an adult, ten years ago.

So today I will be calling my mom and hugging Roo and Moo an extra couple of times.  I will be reading a few more books, singing a few more songs, keeping myself patient and keeping my voice calm.  Maybe we will go for an unexpected treat, or have an impromptu tea party after baking cookies together.  We will be having spaghetti and garlic bread and chocolate cake for dinner, and playing board games afterwards.  Holding onto the good memories, and sharing all that love.

Keeping busy, Keeping Warm

I love the colors that come out as the sun sets.  I never get tired of the view out my kitchen window.

Here's how the colored pencil of the trees started out the month.

...And earlier this week.

Today I took a little break from drawing all those lines and decided to carve some new tiny stamps.  (You can still see the trees on the left.)  I get a lot of inspiration from a couple of favorite blogs, and I have been enjoying Geninne's Art Blog so much lately.  Check out her stamps!

 A valentine card with the little flower stamp.  I also carved a snowdrop and a little leaf.

Roo started working on a seal this afternoon.

Happy Friday, everyone!

This Week

Over the weekend we got a chance to enjoy some sunshine and fresh air while out hiking in Swiss Valley.  I'm glad Roo and Moo had more time to poke about in the snow, because this week we're having quite a thaw.  Fifty degrees for a high today; I think we're going to be playing at the park this morning!

 On Sunday night I finished the first sleeve on Moo's sweater - the second sleeve, the hood, and the button bands to go.  I'm deliberating re-knitting the last few inches of the body since discovering that I both mis-measured and misread the pattern.  Or maybe I'll just finish the sweater and let him wear it as is for this winter, and give it a little more length next fall in the hopes he can get another season out of it.

 Some wintertime fun around the house - Valentines ideas:

Workbook time:

 Lots of playtime in front of the fire:

 And, of course, squeaking in some time in the studio:

 Another landscape inspired by deer tracks in the snow.  I love our backyard.