Monday, April 30, 2012

Mari's Bday Gifts

It's a simple little metal spoon with sharp teeth that digs into your
tomato or strawberry, removes the core or hull cleanly, and leaves you
with just the fruit to work with. Unless you have super sharp knives
and great paring knife skills you are probably used to coring a batch
of tomatoes for sauce being a time-consuming and sometimes messy job;
the Tomato Shark makes this job easy, tidy and quick.

This is another cookbook from the guy who brought us House Rolls!


This is not your grandma's canning book. Preserving is not really cheaper, nor is it a survival and disaster remedy. Canning these days makes sense as a culinary endeavor -- because you can make preserves that taste better, or are far more varied than anything you can buy. This book is the best of a bunch of new guides on modern canning techniques and recipes (like Put 'Em Up, which is decent but not as good). I prefer the recepies in Canning for standard items like james and jellies because it calls for far less sugar than other books, and it has a wide range of culinary influences. The book is also intelligently and simply designed with beautiful illustrations of the preserved treasures.

This first cake didn't make it to the party. So here's the second one.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Shit my kids ruined dot com

Mari has had her hands full around the house this week. I came home to find all the toys were being sent upstairs. I found out one of the multiple infractions was of crayon circles on the wall above our headboard. The children had also used a chair to reach the top shelf of the pantry and acquired the bag of Easter candy. They were in their usual "hiding spot" behind a recliner eating away.  So the toys were sent upstairs. The next night (after getting to bed WAY to late) Benjamin comes to our room asking daddy to cover him up.  Well apparently daddy said he would but by the time Benjamin returned to his room daddy was asleep again.  This prompted a very upset Benjamin to return (he was crying and sobbing) back to our room to request to be covered up. At this point Mama gets up to cover him up.  Well Mama's covering cannot compare to daddy's covering so he continue to cry and be hysterical. This in turn woke up Sister. She was crying and sobbing for no other reason than Benjamin was crying and sobbing. Daddy slept thru most of this while Mama tried her best to console two children from 11 o'clock til 2 o'clock. By the end of the week I return home to find Lucy in Mama's makeup bag. We were able to remove most of it with a warm cloth though I am sure our dinner guest thought we had been abusive. 




Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Benjamin's Fourth Bday


















Benjamin had a wonderful birthday. He spoke of it often before, during, and after the event. Grandmama made a wonderful cake, almost explosively volcanic.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Easter Egg Hunt

Benjamin and Lucy had a blast finding and collecting Easter Eggs. In fact after Mother hid the eggs, it was Benjamin's turn to hide them, then Lucy and finally Daddy's turn.  We had an Easter egg hunt on both Saturday and again on Sunday.  Benjamin hid most of his eggs in the dump bed of his toy dump truck. While Lucy would go out and hide them in a large pile in the grass.  We had a total of 18 eggs to hide and collect on Saturday and fortunately we gathered them all.  Benjamin was really super at telling you where he had hid his eggs.  Grandma B supplied the Easter baskets.  Lucy is still loving her Ice Cream pajama's and wears them as soon as they have been washed and folded.  




















Our precious camera has a "lens error" so we are back to the older model. :( 

Tuesday, April 17, 2012