August 29, 2008
Little maestro
Ian's idiosyncracies | By Tim and Jo | 4:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
9 months!
Well, we missed a picture celebration of 8 months, but I think the vacation pictures can count for that.
They're doing so much these days. It's hard to keep track. It's a scarier time, with both of them crawling around the house, but it's such an exciting time. Socially, this is just a thrilling time. They love just being near us, and are so excited when daddy gets home from work. They're real friends now, doing things to make each other laugh, waking each other up in the morning for their own little "talk times," Elanor waddle-crawling after Ian who's zipping around the house, so fun.
And they each have their fun little tricks. Ian taught himself to crawl up the stairs yesterday. Elanor claps her hands while saying "yayyyyyyyy."
Anyways, obviously I could go on and on, but enjoy the pictures!
deux bebes | By Tim and Jo | 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 26, 2008
English muffins
Okay, I've been wanting to put this up forever. My reward for finishing a draft of a chapter is to catch up on some e-mails, and do some blog posts that I've been putting off.
We're totally hooked on homemade English muffins. They're yummy, but kind of expensive in the store. I can make between 18-24 English muffins for a dollar or so worth of ingredients. And I can add whole wheat to them. I adapted a recipe from Beth Hensperger's very fun The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. She just makes 12 of them from the same recipe, and doesn't use any whole wheat.
So here's what I do.
Bread Machine English Muffins
1) Dump (in whatever order your machine directs) into bread machine* and turn to dough cycle:
1 1/2 cups fat free milk
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (we have some stone ground wheat from a somewhat local mill and it's wonderful)
2 tsp. salt
2 3/4 tsp. bread machine yeast
2) Sprinkle surface with cornmeal, plop dough ball out onto it when finished, sprinkle top with cornmeal
3) Roll out about 1/2 inch thick
4) Cut out 2 1/2 to 3 inch circles (I just use a biscuit cutter). I press it down slightly to make it flatter. Roll out leftover scraps and make more. Depending on how thin I roll the dough, I end up with 18-24. You can make bigger ones, too if you'd rather, just cook for longer. Cover those that don't fit on your griddle with a clean kitchen towel.
5) Spray griddle with cooking spray. Heat on medium/medium high
6) Cook until deep golden brown (about 2-3 minutes for the size I make, longer for bigger ones) flip over and cook for about the same amount of time. There's sort of a line across the middle that develops when they're done--exactly where you'll fork split them.
7) Let cool. Fork split and toast when you want to eat them
We use them up quick enough that I usually keep them in the fridge, though you can freeze them easy enough. When I froze some, I fork split them before freezing to make it easy to toast.
They're so great to have in the house. Tim eats one for breakfast or takes one to work for a morning snack every morning. For lunches, I make one egg over easy and top it with a slice of cheese and a piece of Canadian or regular bacon, and make a little sandwich. And for easy dinners, we've been making eggs benedict (one egg over easy, one slice of Canadian bacon, hollandaise sauce [we've been using a jar from Trader Joe's] all over a toasted muffin).
*I'm sure someone more motivated than I am could make this by hand, just by kneading and rising a couple of times.
cooking stuff | By Tim and Jo | 3:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
12 step to writing a dissertation chapter
Writing a dissertation with two mobile babies has been hard. Very hard. Throw in a few more superlatives hard.
But Tim has been great about babysitting at night and on some Saturdays. And there are naptimes, when they aren't being boycotted. And I've found that I can bring the computer downstairs, and if I can keep Ian from scrambling my precious papers, we can all sort of hang out together.
So, after I don't want to even tell you how much time, I finished a solid draft of my second chapter.
About 80 pages + about 20 pages of interviews.
Woohoo!!!
I have a solid draft of my first chapter, and need to write my last chapter, intro., conclusion, etc. But this is the big one. It covers the two biggest pieces in the dissertation, and some of the most complex ideas. I think it takes me way over the halfway hump, probably 2/3's of the work is done, done, done.
So, here are my 12 steps!
1) Find two pieces *love*
2) Start writing before I have a good framework *hate*
3) Interview composers *love*
4) Write a draft *hate*
4) Completely tear apart the draft *satisfying in a destructive sort of way*
5) Start researching fields I'm completely unfamiliar with *sort of fun*
6) Continue researching fields, wish I had taken a historiography course *drowns in data*
7) Start rewrite *hate*
8) Completely reorganizes chapter even though it will take a lot of work and is completely different than the way I structured first chapter *knows it's the right thing to do*
9) Lots more work *drowns again*
10) Pregnancy brain *duhhhhhhhhhh*
11) Gets portion of brain back, writes, writes, writes, revises, revises, revises *knows that it took way too long, but knows it's shaping up to be something worth writing*
12) Sends draft to advisor *basks for the moment in the doneness of it*
dissertation | By Tim and Jo | 3:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 22, 2008
Samosa pie
A couple days ago, I really wanted samosas. I thought about making them myself.
But I didn't feel like making the pastry or going out to the store to get some spring roll wrappers (I used wonton wrappers for ravioli and pierogi and they turned out pretty well).
So I sat and stewed and thought about samosas. And I remembered that I had a pie crust in the freezer that needed to be used up. So I invented samosa pie.* Tim really liked it. It was like eating a vegetable samosa and a beef samosa at the same time. I tend to just toss in Indian spices to taste these days, but I'll try to replicate what I did here.
Samosa pie (serves 4)
-One 9-inch (or 10-inch) deep dish pie crust (or make it yourself if you're not lazy, I mean, busy)
-1/2 to 3/4 lb. ground beef (OR ground turkey OR ground lamb)
-I medium onion diced
-3-4 tbsp. golden raisins
-1 bag instant potatoes (I used roasted garlic) or 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
-2 to 3 garlic cloves or the equivalent in garlic powder
-1 to 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables OR peas and carrots
-1-2 tbsp. curry powder
-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. all-spice
-2 tsp. cumin divided
-1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper powder or to taste (I used chipotle chili powder for warmth)
-1/4 cup ketchup
-salt and pepper to taste
1) Thaw and bake the pie crust for 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown
2) Meanwhile, make the mashed potatoes, if you're not using leftovers and mix in 1 tsp. cumin into potatoes
3) Brown ground beef, garlic and onions. Drain fat.
4) Mix golden raisins and the rest of spices into the ground beef mixture. Cook until fragrant. Add ketchup and stir until the sauce is very thick, about five minutes
5) Put meat mixture into baked pie crust. Top with mashed potatoes. Bake in 400 degree oven (or broil, watching carefuly) until lightly browned on top. I tried to slightly cover the edges of the crust with potatoes so it wouldn't get too brown.
*So, if any of you ever decide to make it, why don't you let me know because that would make me feel like I was really, really cool!
cooking stuff | By Tim and Jo | 7:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Ian on the war-path
Ian: There's nothing I like better than pulling a bunch of books off the shelf. My silly sister thinks books are for reading. I know better. Books are for making piles. And for eating if there isn't any carpet fuzz handy.
Okay. Almost through with this shelf.
What to do next? What to do?
Ahhhh....I see a camera! Here I come!!
Almost there...
Got it!
Ian's idiosyncracies | By Tim and Jo | 7:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)