Whole Grains

Last year at the local Winter Festival, they had a silent auction to raise money for the rec center and we got a whole grains baking cook book from King Arthur Flour, the local guru of baking. It was a nice book, we got to support the town, and there was a chili cook-off, which I am tempted to join this year, but that’s another story.

Either way, we’ve never really cracked open the book, but have recently found that it is a fountain of information and good ideas about using whole grains in baking. We even tried a few of the recipes. One that we love are the whole grain pancakes, which is nice because you can make the mix up in big batches and freeze it. When you’re ready, just add milk and eggs and you’re good to go.

Recently we had some olive bread from La Panciatta, one of our favorite bakeries, and found it to be good, but not life altering like some of their other breads. N said he bet we could make it, and sure enough, there was a recipe in our whole grain cookbook.

So we gave it a go. One thing about using hardcore cookbooks, especially with baking, is that they take lots of time, much it sitting around waiting for things to rise. Of course, when you’re either a SAHD or real-man in training, you don’t have any time to sit around and watch bread rise, but that’s beside the point.

The recipe spans two days because you have to make the sponge, then there are two rising steps, before you actually put the bread in the oven, but again, that gives you a chance to do other things. We made the bread, and it turned out well, or at least well enough to please the harshest critics, our kids.

I like it when things work out the way they’re supposed to, because it’s such a rare occurrence. I have found that King Arthur recipes generally give good results, so hats off to them, and thanks for reading

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

There has been a great deal of hair-cutting going on around our house lately, and I've been toying with the idea of cutting off my own hair. I've grown it long for so long that I can't even remember what it was like to have short hair, but I will say this - long hair is a complete hassle. Plus, I can't tell you how many people assume I'm Native American, and ask me if I was an extra in Dances with Wolves. It's all because of the hair, and the powerful influence of the media, of course.

I'm not sure when this big hair-cutting undertaking is going to take place. At one point I was ready to go for it and jump in with both feet, but I started to think that the shock would kill me, so I'm opting for the gradual approach. I asked R to cut it, and she got about a foot off. It felt great, and was a breeze to wash and comb.

Eventually, it's all gotta go. Stay tuned for when and where. I figure that if it gets long again, the kids would have fun attacking it with a pair scissors. Speaking of which, I was at the Coop the other day and one of cashiers noticed my hair-cut and asked if the kids got ahold of some scissors and chopped off my hair.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to RC for the pics.

Christmas Eve Day

We spent the day before Christmas eagerly anticipating Christmas and preparing for the big day. Since it was a holiday, R stayed home and we were able to hang and do fun stuff like play games, read, eat (my personal favorite), and hang by the fire. What a life.

At some point, however, the kids get a little stir crazy. While I love sitting around doing nothing or reading a good book, this is not as appealing at the ripe age of 7 years. Plus, R needed to do some final Christmas wrapping, so I thought it would be a good time go skiing or skating. I was leaning to skiing, but the kids opted for skating, so it was off to Union Arena.

There was a decent crowd there, and we had fun. A&N are great skaters, especially N, and I still think he'd made a great hockey player. They have hockey camps in January, and that might be something we'll investigate because he's said he's interested.

We got home around 4:00, and this made the dinner schedule a little harder because the plan was to broil salmon and asparagus, but also served our newest incarnation of bread, as well. The bread, as anyone who bakes knows, is a complete hassle, with huge amounts of time dedicated to letting it rise. Too much, if you ask me.

I was planning on making low glycemic cookies and chocolate pudding cake first. As you can see, I have my priorities straight by making dessert first. Then I was going to bake the bread that had been rising all day, then broil the fish and veggies. The problem was, by the time dessert was done, everyone was getting hungry and when R broke out the box of crackers, I knew had to get dinner on the table ASAP.

I ditched the idea of finishing the bread by supper, cooked the meal, thereby letting the bread rise for longer than usual, but I've not found this to be a problem, even when it goes over for hours. As soon as dinner was ready, I put the loaves in and let them bake while we ate.

The meal was nice, we even had sparkling pear cider to go with the fish. I made sure it was non-alcoholic this time. Then we had chocolate pudding cake and vanilla ice cream, which went over well with the kids. The adults weren't complaining, either, and best of all, it was all low-glycemic.

After supper, we watched a fairly boring movie, but it was fun trying to fit all four of us onto the futon and then see who could sit still for the entire movie. I think R was the only one.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Hitting the Slopes

It has been pretty pitiful thus far in terms of snow, and I’m hearing about all the precipitation that’s falling on LA and wonder, what exactly is going on here? We need snow! I know I’ll regret making this proclamation one day soon, but for now, we haven’t really gotten much of the white stuff, and we are itching for it.

That, however, did not stop us from going skiing. I was aware that opening day was on the day before Christmas Eve, but wasn’t sure if we could manage it because there was so much going on, but when that day arrived, I figured we could squeeze in a couple of hours.

So we packed up the Fit, headed over to Quechee, and did some skiing. It was a lot of fun, and the kids really had a blast. One interesting development was that A&N seemed to have switched roles. Last year N was the one who tore down the mountain and turned my hair gray, while A was much more controlled and cautious. This time around, A was flying down the hill and ended up that bottom well before we got there, and N was the one who took it slow and steady. I’m kind of glad, because it was a little scary watching him go, and though N was fast, she tends to embrace a much more cautious approach to things.

They are both good skiers, and I’m glad they enjoy it. Now if we could a few feet of snow, we would be golden. Also, this year we’ve vowed to try some new ski hills other than Quechee and Dartmouth. However, one of the closest and nicest, Ascutney, went out of business. Bummer.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Christmas Shopping Complications

I realize this is after the fact, but I had to squeeze in a Christmas Day entry, so now I need to backtrack a little.

With that in mind, we had some Christmas shopping adventures, though probably not so bad in the grand scheme of the retail universe because we are really not that big on shopping or consumption, other than food. On the other hand, I loathe shopping, it makes me want to hide away until it's all over, much like this guy is doing.

A large part of that stems from the fact that shopping can be a real hassle, and is torture for the kids. It's not so much the act of buying as the crowds and the time spent. Plus, it usually entails a trip to retail hell in W. Leb, which always reminds me of being in LA with all the traffic and crowds, but you do what you have to do, and with Christmas on the horizon, we had little choice.

Putting things off until the last minute didn’t help, and though there were still several days until the big day, the crowds were beginning to grow. We needed to get some final things for mom, but fortunately we knew what we wanted to get, and headed over to Hubert’s. That, of course, did not necessarily mean they had what we were looking for. In fact, they did not. They had some less desirable alternatives, but we talked it over and decided what we thought was best, and the salesperson got on the horn and found it in another store and said it would arrive in a few days.

On the one hand, we were happy, but on the other, it meant coming back to shopper’s paradise a day or two before Christmas. Yikes! Not the sort of place you want to be, but what are you going to do?

We also went over to Stateline Sports and I lucked out and happened upon something we needed for N that I’d forgotten about. Talk about serendipity, though I had to distract the kids so I could buy it in a clandestine manner. This wasn’t too difficult, though they kept asking me questions later why I told them to go to the other side of the store to check on prices for hockey tape. The cashier knew what I was up to and played along, giving me some semblance of legitimacy.

Though we weren’t completely done, we got enough accomplished to feel that our time in retail purgatory was, for the most part, finished. We headed back home where the kids wrapped the goods, hid them from mom, and we got ready for the big day.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Jess Rosales IV for the pic.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

I usually write my blog in the past tense, but felt like wishing everyone the best for the holidays and the new year.

Still hoping for snow, and still no word from my mom. Oh well, it's becoming a tradition.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to RC for the pic.

Planning Christmas Meals

We were having the big debate over Christmas dinner in our household. It would have been easy enough to just roast a chicken like we do on Thanksgiving, but why not be a little different?

We've had fish in the past, and salmon is a family favorite and one that we are happy the kids enjoy, but then A&N started debating that issue, as well. On the one hand, A thought having beef for a change would be nice. On the other, N said we don't eat salmon enough, though we eat it a lot more than we eat beef.

As far as beef goes, there was the option of a roast, or even a brisket, but with large hunks of meat, you really have to get the quality stuff, or you're going to end up with tough meat. That seems almost unavoidable with roast beef, especially when you're challenged at cutting the meat thin.

With this in mind, we thought of steak, specifically filet mignon. The question was, should we go local/grass fed, or get the killer beef that is more industrial. The local store, BG's, is small but has somehow really established a name for themselves in terms of their meat. In fact, my Mentor, who used to be in the restaurant business, says they have the best filet that he's ever eaten, and that's saying a lot considering that he's a gourmand. However, it is not local and grass fed. The local stuff tends to be a little tougher.

Also, finding local filet is not easy. They tend to have lots of ground beef. I searched around and could only find it at our local and reliable source, Cloudland Farms. CE said she had filet steaks and I could get them any time, just let her know, so I went over and now we have them.

So, the plan is as follows: we'll do salmon with asparagus and sweet potatoes on Christmas Eve, and then filet with Yorkshire pudding, squash and green beans on Christmas Night. This plan, for record, met with the approval of the relevant parties, namely A&N.

I love when things work out.

Happy holidays to all, and thanks to Rob Owen-Wahl and Clint Rankin for the pics.