My head might explode if I ever attend this trade show. The Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) Trade Show just finished up in Anaheim, California. Many designers and crafters I follow were in full force. I wonder if I’ll attend some day – crafter or otherwise.
Here are a few links to some of the captured moments.
Smitten Kitchen versus Martha Stewart. Can’t go wrong really. Just depends on what you’re looking for. I like a hearty, chewy oatmeal cookie where the oatmeal is the star. My husband likes a thin oatmeal cookie – not sure if he likes crispy or chewy. In either recipe I needed to omit any nuts for the little guy and myself. We didn’t really miss it.
What I enjoyed about the Smitten Kitchen recipe: good chew, good body and texture. I chilled the batter, as recommended, for about one hour before baking (much easier to handle). I did need to substitute dried cranberries for raisins since I didn’t have any raisins on hand in the pantry.
As for the Martha Stewart oatmeal toffee cookie, the toffee makes the cookie. The “nut (toffee) free” version has no depth of flavor to me. We did not need to chill the batter prior to baking, but I’m wondering how that might change the recipe, if at all. We didn’t roll the dough into logs and cut as written because we were lazy. We just used our little cookie/ice cream scoop. This may be why our cookie looks nothing like the picture on Martha’s website. Pretty sure all our ingredients were fresh and measured correctly, too, but I found the cookie to be a little too dry and crumbly for my taste.
Regardless, the kids enjoyed taste testing… Ollie said, “MOM! Can I take a picture, too?” Sure, buddy.
Now that the holidays are over and I’ve recovered somewhat, I tend to review our hosting strategies, successes and misses. Every year we have at least 1-3 guests stay with us for any given length of time. It could be an overnight stay or a couple of weeks. Don’t know about other people, but I get worked up. I just want to make sure that our guests feel welcome and comfortable, that they enjoy their stay and would want to come back.
We have a slight challenge of not having a dedicated guest room, but here’s how we get around that: the basement. It becomes a semi-private suite. In the case of my awesome brother-in-law, he’ll room in my kid’s room, or with my kids. No problem. However, I can’t necessarily assume that everyone will be as accommodating.
My must haves: No matter what the state my house is in, I will prep good pillows, a good air mattress (we have two), towels, sheets, clock, storage cubes doubled as nightstand, hangers, and coat rack. Don’t have yet but would like: luggage rack.
Entertaining: Here, I luck out again with pretty easy going relatives. My in-laws did most of the shuttling around last Fall with our guests. But, it’s helpful to have schedules and sight-tour brochures handy. Seriously, I even picked up at our library a few copies of “family-friendly” publications that have local things-to-do and set that on the bedside table for our guests.
Meal times: I’ll ask about favorite snacks and more importantly, kids favorites, if I’m not exactly sure what my guests are into. Putting together a dinner/meal schedule was also a super timesaver. It was more like a guideline, if anything, but sure helped with grocery lists. We had plenty of drinks on hand too.
Here’s my favorite way of setting up my towels on the bed for a cute “welcome”. One of my best friends taught me this a long time ago when I stayed at her home for a few days. Sorry, you might only get this the first time you come over, after that, you’re like family and I don’t sweat it out so much.
Abby took video footage of me putting it together (our first video tutorial), but the file was too big to upload! This will have to do.
**Update** I figured out how to add video:
1) Take the bath towel and fold into thirds along the long direction.
2) Fold into thirds the other way (short direction).
3) Take the hand towel and fold into thirds along the long direction.
4) Now wrap the hand towel around the bath towel.
5) Take the wash cloth, fold into thirds, then wrap around the hand towel to hide the ends and create a “bow” appearance.
Voila! Hotel-ish towels for your guests… enjoy!
I was craving scones the other day, and usually, Ollie and I take a little trip to our favorite tea shop to have delicious raisin scones and tea. But we didn’t make time. (Sorry, Sheila.) After mentioning this to Eastman, he said, “Your scones are the best.” Aww, thanks, honey. Then I realized, I haven’t made scones at home in a long time. This recipe has been a staple in our home since we’ve been married. It’s easy to double, which you might want to do… easy to make with preparation time of 15 minutes (give or take some if you do or do not have everything on hand), and easy to wait for (15-20 minute bake time).
The lime and coconut flavors are so subtle, and really accompany the blueberries well. I have a friend who claims he hates coconut, and then proceeds to consume my coconutty-baked goods. Making this with dried cranberries works too, but I would suggest rehydrating the cranberries in warm water while you’re preparing the batter. Once in the oven, it’s magical to watch the scones puff up and get golden brown if you’re not doing anything else. Unfortunately, I wasn’t watching them closely and this batch browned a bit more than I would have wanted.
Julie’s Scones (Yield: 8 scones)
Preheat oven to 425 deg. F. Grease baking sheet or prep with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Using a pastry blender (or 2 knives), cut butter into dry mixture until coarse crumbs form. Make well in center. In another bowl, mix egg, coconut, milk and lime peel. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture. Stir with fork until dry ingredients are just moistened. Gently fold in the berries. Spoon scones about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops with sugar. Bake until golden brown, approximately 15-20 min. Cool completely.
Last April, I wrote about my acid reflux problem. It’s been an on-and-off again sort of relationship where you’re not sure where it’s going, sometimes it gets a little worse and some days are actually okay. My self-diagnoses and self-medication with over the counter choices just wasn’t enough. My symptoms were getting worse and I was drinking Maalox too often, on top of taking pills. I’m not a doctor. Who did I think I was kidding? I really should have seen a doctor last October or November, but when my uncle passed away early December, I thought, he would’ve never let this go on so long. I was doing my own family an injustice by not following up, because (as many of us parents know) what good am I if I’m not well.
So, friends, I went to a skillful gastroenterologist (GI doc!) who gave me a look over, asked lots of question about my lifestyle and ordered up some kicked-up proton pump inhibitors (think Prevacid/Prilosec) and an endoscopy. Wow…cool. They were going to sedate me, stick a camera down my throat and take a look. I had it done over the holidays while my husband was home on Winter Break. Talk about loopy! They had me in a “twilight” sleep. Julie, we’re going to administer the sedative now, don’t be nervous, you’ll feel a little tired and… I was OUT. About 20 minutes later, I awoke in recovery. Eastman told me I was mumbling about going to Crate&Barrel to buy something. He was quite amazed at what was floating around in my head. Good thing I wasn’t talking about some hot guy!
Glad to report that they found nothing serious, just a few areas of question and totally manageable. Thank you, Dr. Yoon. I was going to post pics of their findings, but I’ll spare you. Who needs to see down my esophagus and inside my stomach? Ewww. Along with the medicine I may need to take for the rest of my life, I started attending yoga and spinning at our local park district. Just once a week, both have been a welcome change.
My husband was cool enough to loan me his roller, so we moved my bike inside our home so I can ride a few more times a week. While I have no intention of making this a spot to hang clothes as so many people do, I’ve used the bike once since we moved it (it’s been a week). I’m hoping to change that this week. Maybe this will make me feel more accountable by telling my cyber-friends.
Here’s to health in 2010!
Look at this book I found at my mom’s house. First published in 1963, then again in 1972… The ideas and recipes may be sort of timeless, but the pictures, oh, the pictures are outstanding.
And just in time for getting birthday party ideas… my daughter turns 8 in just over a month. Will she cringe when she sees some of these? (Love her haircut.)
Could the frosting on these cakes look any more “nuclear”?
These kids are decorating their own cupcakes. Love the chef hat and aprons which are all paper.
What is she wearing on her head?
Doesn’t this look mint-a-licious?
I don’t know if there are any teenagers out there who would even THINK of having a “wingding” like this. Maybe if there was a “Nancy Drew” sort of person out there in a town-that-time-forgot.
This picture below for Christmas is a little spooky to me. Dolls creep me out sometimes.
I think my parents have an indoor grill just like the one in the picture below.
Clearly, I missed the boat on having a 60s themed New Year’s party this past year. Maybe next year! I can’t get over their clothes.
But, there is Valentine’s Day coming up. I’m really tempted to try some of these throwback recipes (looks like some kind of mousse)… too bad I can’t bring “homemade” goods to my daughter’s school!
