Making Cookies

Yesterday the kids and I were talking about cookies, and I told them that we could go to the grocery store tomorrow and buy some ingredients--well really just chocolate chips, since that's all we were missing. In case my timeline is confusing, that means that we made chocolate chip cookies today. Both kids were excited to help, and washed their hands and climbed on a stool to help measure the flour and sugar. We were taking turns stirring the dry ingredients when I got a phone call from the store that necessitated a couple more quick phones calls. In the middle of talking to Aunt Becky, I turned around and Caroline had both hands in the flour, taking pinches and spreading them on the counter. I removed the bowl, and let my tactile girl play with the mess already there: soon enough Jack added his own touch, and a monster truck toy was making tracks through the white powder. I snapped a few pictures before we continued with the cookies:

I also took two videos of the kids putting the dough on a cookie sheet: mostly because Caroline was having so much fun playing with the dough. Jackson, true to his personality, was carefully rolling the cookies into balls and placing them on the tray. Caroline, on the other hand, was smashing them and squishing them in her hand. Lots of fun for both of them!

Caroline thought I was taking a picture, and kept saying "cheese." You have to catch her unawares for a good picture, and it's hard to do!

As a side note, we were praying before bed tonight, and we always ask for sweet dreams and a good nights sleep (what mom doesn't?!), but then Jack prayed for bad dreams for Caroline. I told him that wasn't very kind, but he responded that God loves bad things too, like bad people. It still didn't sound very kind to me, so he thought about it, and then prayed for wild dreams for his sister instead. "That would be fun Mom," he assured me. I guess wild dreams are okay with me, as long as they lead to sound sleep!

Blackberry Jam!

Well we did it: we made jam. We ate a lot of the first batch we picked, so we stopped by Sunsmile Farms on Friday and did their u-pick thornless blackberries. The kids were able to pick more that way! Then we mixed in our wild blackberries (which still taste sweeter, if thornier), and away we went. I've never canned before, except helping and observing my mom and Ginya when I was little, so this was new to me. The making of the jam itself was simple: we let the berries macerate with sugar and fresh lemon juice for a couple of hours, and then boiled it over low heat until it gelled (which took at least four times longer than the eighteen minutes the recipe said, and maybe even longer--I wasn't watching the clock exactly). The canning part came next, and that was a mystery to me, so I was going slowly and reading the directions very carefully.

We had a bit of leftover jam on vanilla ice cream last night, and it was delicious, and then this morning we opened our first jar and had it on bread for a quick breakfast before heading out to the Nevada County Fair. Yum! It was nice and thick and perfectly gelled, so I think it worked. The kids and I had lots of fun, and it was a great way to slow down our busy fair week.

This first picture is of the berries sitting in the sugar and lemon juice. Don't you just want to eat them now? The next picture is of the finished product, cooling on the counter. Then we finish with a picture of a sleepy looking Jack slowly munching on his bread with jam.I thought I got a better picture of him, but this is all I could find when I uploaded the photos this evening, so sleepy picture it is. This was definitely a cooking experiment worth repeating!

Monday Night Dinner

Don't you love the summertime bounty? Fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob, and fresh greens and even watermelon? We have a weekly dinner at our house, which started years ago when Michael was an intern at Christian Encounter Ranch, and had Mondays off. Now Michael is married and in Portland, but the tradition continues with Becky and her roommates, and anyone else who happens to be around. This week that meant that besides Becky, Tracy, and Tiffany, Chuck and Caroline and our friend John Klus also came up for dinner. We were an even dozen enjoying the food Trace prepared.

This week that meant grilled pork tenderloin, corn on the cob, a watermelon/watercress/mint salad, and sugar snap peas with sauteed spinach and shallots. Yum!

At some point Caroline ran outside, and she came back in with feet looking like this:

so we finished off our Monday night with a bath.

Tuesday: Becky's Birthday

Well I don't know how you like to celebrate birthdays in your family, but in our family we like to have friends over and share a meal. I think we should have been born Italian. Yesterday was Aunt Becky's birthday, and boy did we eat. She had talked to Trace earlier in the day about her favorite foods, and I think he cooked them all. At least it seemed like it halfway through the meal! For those of you who weren't there, enjoy the pictures of the party:

Jackson helping me make the cake. I had to include this picture because it is the first time Jack has been allowed to use a sharp knife, and he was concentrating so hard, and being so careful--good job Jack!

Eating the appetizer Becky requested: roasted garlic, warm Brie, carmelized onions, and a fresh baguette.

Trace, the creator of all the wonderful food, working at the barbeque. I'm pretty sure he cooked for about four hours straight, and maybe more. Thanks babe!

The first course was spinach salad with a warm poached egg on top, bacon, onion, and fresh goat cheese. The egg becomes part of the dressing, if you haven't tried it before. Becky and Tiffany definitely look ready to dig in.

Then we had roasted artichokes with a red pepper aioli in the center.

After that . . . well after that came the big lull. We hadn't even had the main meal yet, but no one was very hungry, since we'd had three courses already. So while Trace barbequed the meat and I worked on the cake, the rest of the guests rested. Some literally . . . I'm pretty sure Andrew fell asleep. Then we gathered around the table again for the finale: grilled air-chilled chicken, T-bone steaks, grilled mixed vegetables, and fresh corn with roasted poblano chiles.

Finally it was time for dessert. It was a modified strawberry shortcake, made with vanilla cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. Yum.

The candles are significant, because if you read the small print, it's a 24 pack. That means that Becky, on her 25th birthday, is a two pack girl. Of candles that is.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the evening came as we were all giving hugs to Becky as she and Tiffany and Tracy gathered their stuff to go home. I looked for Jackson and Caroline to have them say goodbye too, and was I surprised when I saw them on the counter (not more than two feet away--I just wasn't paying attention), putting candles back in the remains of the cake. Any that they accidentally put in upside down they were licking the whip cream off and trying again. I grabbed the video camera and took a quick video of their shenanigans. In case you're wondering, they used all the candles they could find, and the quarter of the cake ended up with 43 candles in it. Who knew you could fit so many in a cake?

Happy Birthday Becky!

Jack the cook

Jackson saw the parmesan cheese sitting on the counter last night (Trace had been making caesar salad for us) and he decided to grate some for himself. Then he proceeded to share with Trace and Caroline and I. Trace had put out some shrimp with cocktail sauce as we waited for Andrew and Will to get home for dinner, and Jack decided his shrimp would be better with parmesan on it. I was complimenting his creativity as a cook, and he said: "When I am bigger I will cook for people, like dad." I thought that was great, until he added, "I will do the cheese for them." I'm not sure there's much of a career in grating parmesan cheese, but if there is, he'll be good at it! Here's the photographic series of events: Oh and he's wearing his swimsuit because that's what he did all day, played in his kiddie pool.

Grating from up high.

Trying the parmesan on a piece of shrimp dipped in butter--yum!

More serious grating.

Eating the parmesan. When the plate had a light dusting of parmesan on it, he said he was done, because he covered the plate (probably not even enough for a bite). But it tasted so good he kept grating for the next twenty minutes!