The New Year's Cake and Parsnip Soup

 Esme and I made the butter almond cake together today.  

 

My haul from the grocery store.  I didn't take any pictures of the cake itself.  We made hopping john of a sort, and I served carrots and the almond cake for Esme, and carrots, the almond cake, greens and some of the acorn squash for grandma and myself.

 I had looked through all of my recipes and found the recipe for galette des rois (king's cake) and decided it was too complicated.  But yesterday, I had decided that I needed to make the cake again, maybe something that I can still eat after this dental work.

 

This is what we made - it was good, a bit like sweetened cornbread.  I can't have corn products, have been avoiding them for years now on my cousin's recommendation with my other connective tissue disorder.   

 

Butter Almond Cake :

 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened

1 cup white granulated sugar

2 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

little less than 3 tsp. baking powder

1.5 cups of general purpose flour

1/2 cup of ground almonds

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until fork comes out clean

cream softened butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth, mix dry ingredients in another bowl and add half and half with the milk beating until all combined, pour into ceramic dish, bake

 

Hopping John  

 

fry chopped bacon on low until the edges begin to crisp, keep the oil in the pan

pour drained can of black eyed peas into the grease and mix thoroughly while still heating

stir often until it begins to bubble again

put frozen chopped green onions into mixture, heat again until it sizzles and stir until the gravy thickens

 

Parsnip Soup  (a variation on the turnip soup from a while back)

 

peel and chop up into small slivers one large parsnip

put in pot with at least 2 cups (I think it was closer to 4) of water

pour in a bit of olive oil 

add frozen zucchini and onions

garlic parmesan grilling seasoning

black pepper 

 

boil until everything is soft, use a stick blender to make smooth 

add a good pat of good butter on top of each bowl

 

 

 

Happy New Year

Happy 2012, the new Year. Not much will change today itself, but there are large aspirations on the horizon to be planned and worked with over the course of the entire year. Projects in the garden and with the land we cleared last year. There are two new areas we hope to till and plant in besides the one we did this year. There will be a lot of fence to run at the shared garden for Grandma and us. Projects in the house as always, knitting and sewing and etc. We will do more with Esme's homeschool, and try to find out the rules of this better before August rolls about. I am also trying to maintain a healthy weight now after losing quite a bit last year. Mark, Grandma and Esme will take Grandpa to his doctor's appointment today in Jackson, and I have to go to work :( I wish them a good safe trip!

Things I've Done Recently and Esme's Adventures

14 months
Esme 'draw draw' on her sketchpad.
She can find her crayon and draw on the paper when you ask 'Draw Draw?'

I only let her have one crayon in her play area at a time unless we are all drawing together, for obvious reasons. We've gotten her 'soap crayons' for the bathtub which she is also enjoying immensely.

Instead of New Year's Resolutions of things I'd like to do this year, I'm going to list a few things I've actually DONE recently, that I am proud of.

Hopefully they will serve as an inspiration to do more things I've been planning to do.

1.) Put cabinet pulls and a child-proof lock on our cleaning supplies cupboard.
-- also outlet covers over all accessible electrical outlets
2.) Vacuumed the stairs and cleaned quite a bit of the house in the past week.
3.) Knit a mitten (working on the second)
4.) Made several batches of cornbread muffins which we all enjoyed.
5.) Made a queen-sized topper for a quilt (working on the back)
6.) Taken Esme for walks outside four days in a row.
7.) Been more spontaneous with things I want to get done in the house, instead of putting them off until Esme is asleep etc...

I've had Esme outside her play area most of the time this week when I've been home. The play area is the main area of the house we've babyproofed, with all her toys etc. It is fairly safe to leave her there when we have to go downstairs for a few minutes. We have the stairs and lots of equipment she could get hurt on, so I don't let her run around the other parts of the house unless I'm ready to watch her closely. This week I've had her ALL OVER the house with me, everywhere, and pretty much followed her around when we weren't actively involved in doing something. She has brought laundry down with me, seen Daddy load the dishwasher, watched me sweep and scrub the floor, been a participant in getting her milk and food, etc. etc... Today she was running all around our upstairs harrassing the dogs, playing with packing supplies and basically trying to get anything she could reach.

And I've really seen the difference in her. First off, she is SO much more stubborn about wanting to touch and learn about every new thing she finds. She has probably thrown more tantrums in the past three days than in the past month. But there are good things too. She is babbling more - asking about things in her babytalk, interacting and imitating what we do with things, learning to respond to me more by following directions etc... She also has started to push her limits about what Mommy doesn't want her getting into. You can 'see the gears turning' when she has been told 'No' about something before. She starts to reach for it, looks for me, then backs off with either a grin or a rising wail depending on her mood.

Also I've had her outside four days in a row. The other day I picked up a sweet gum ball and just by instinct knocked the seeds out of it on a post before giving it to her. I didn't think she paid any attention to my action, just the object. She looked it over, went over to the post and knocked it on it again 'Is this what we do with this?' Also watching the thinking process as she trades a stick for a rock for an acorn for a bigger stick etc...

I can really see our little girl's personality and mind blossoming ::)

Esme says Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

well, she isn't really saying it, but she would if she could :)

Traditions: In my family growing up we would always stand out on the porch at the stroke of midnight and shout as loud as we could 'Happy New Year.'