buddy boys

 

  

  

  

  

so we made buddy boys last week.  adam had a buddy boy(named after his babysitter's son's nickname) when he was a kid that he loved dearly and i have been feeling a void in our imaginative play where they needed a boy doll to reenact our days and take care of.  they turned out exactly the way i wanted them to, although i am still not so sure about their hair... it's a little on the trendy side... hmm...

today i made mayonnaise(used gluten free girl's recipe but put half olive oil and half canola) to make andrea's tomato pie again.  this time i also made my pie crust whole wheat.  i think it actually turned out better, although this time i also remembered to toss the tomatoes in flour and sprinkle with sugar, so that could be the real reason it tasted better...

we got an additional 20 inches of snow last night, but thankfully the winds pushed most of it around so it doesn't feel like we've gotten almost 50 inches of snow in the past week...

100th post(possibly the longest post ever)

wow, i've done this 100 times. weird.

so here's what's going on with us lately:

ezra ate(and tattooed his hands with) the bottle of green food coloring and thought it was funny.

isaac really likes rolling out pie dough(i believe this is due to the continual positive reinforcement of getting to eat something delicious pretty soon after having rolled said pie dough).  he looks like an artist when he does it.

 

this is andrea's(amazing) tomato pie recipe, which is heavenly although not that good for you(only because it contains mayonaise) 

Andrea's Tomato Pie

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Ingredients: one prebaked pastry shell(whatever your favorite recipe is), 15 campari tomatoes(or enough of any type of tomato to fill the pie shell 3/4 of the way), 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise, 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar, 3 Tbsp flour, salt and pepper to taste, 2 Tbsp sugar, freshly ripped basil(optional)

Directions: Preheat to 375 degrees.  Slice tomatoes, salt them, and allow them to drain in a colander in the sink for at least 30 minutes.  In a medium bowl, combine mayo and cheddar(reserve some cheddar to sprinkle on top).  In a medium bowl, coat tomatoes with flour and pepper.  Pour tomatoes into pie shell and sprinkle with basil and sugar.  Spread mayo/cheddar over tomatoes and top with extra cheese.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until cheese becomes a nicely browned crust.

sooo good...  thanks for letting me post this andrea!

 

this is Rt. 4 out my car window on saturday after 27(ish) inches got dumped everywhere

the wilson bridge

old town alexandria(saturday night)

 

washington street

town hall(roped off)

 

torpedo factory

blue lights on the dock

 

 

 

sunday morning(yes, church was cancelled) off mom's deck(our power went out on saturday, thus the trek to alexandria)

 

beautiful flowers inside(to remind us that the snow will not stay forever)

daddy and isaac fixing the remote control plane

sunday night was the super bowl.  i usually only watch the commercials, but when most of my family lives a few hours from new orleans i kinda have to have some loyalty(go saints!).  we made jambalaya for dinner and beignets(this recipe was exactly double the recipe my mom already had except hers had twice the ratio of yeast, which i would recommend) and chickory coffee for dessert(dangerously delicious!)

 

backhoe digging us out monday morning

and then last night it started snowing again and then stopped and then this morning we have another blizzard that has brought us at least a foot so far...

this is our backyard this morning

this is our(rather large) recycling bin.

been giving the birds more to eat every few hours.  they are really hungry.

so i have been looking into making my own body products(deoderant, lotion, shampoo, lip balm, etc.) mostly so that i know what im putting on my body and the bodies of my family.  it's cheaper in the long run, although buying ingredients in bulk is expensive up front.  angry chicken posted a link to this site on why not to use shampoo.  she also has a deodorant recipe i'm going to try.  i've been using tom's of maine for a while now and love the smell(apricot!) but i stink a little by the end of the day(which is actually an improvement because when i was using regular deoderant i smelled worse) so i'm going to try hers. 

ps. her chai tea concentrate recipe is awesome!

mom 2.0

(the music is a liiiitle corny, but the words are wonderful)

"Nurturing the good in this world is nothing short of a priviledge." - Katherine Centerova

origami

 

i am not ashamed to say that free patterns make my heart glad.  in particular, cute things that i can make for myself out of repurposed materials make my heart VERY glad.  this very generously shared pattern for an origami wrap from Uniform Natural is darling and i cannot wait to find the perfect piece of fabric to make it out of!

le petit macarons

i have been eyeing macarons from afar(across the blogosphere) for a while.  

 

 

 

  

 

(the above pictures can all be found here and here)

come on, the colors are freakin amazing!  i'd never even eaten one, but but my sister couldn't even find words to describe how wonderful they are in paris(yes, i am extremely jealous).  so i began a recipe search and decided i was going to make them.

 i made coffee macarons with nutella ganache last night(this gram conversion link was very helpful).  

they turned out great(although i have no frame of reference on which to base this opinion)! 

 

  

should've waited for the ganache to thicken some more...

i'm going to try raspberry and chocolate next and then i think i will just go color crazy(like pierre herme... he might have taken it a little too far... truffles and gold powder, c'mon) and try my own twists on the classic recipe, because you can really do anything you want with these.  i have read however that if you are going to color them to use paste food coloring(not liquid food color which can alter the puffiness by making them too moist).  

kid yoga

 

 this is isaac's rendition of ashtanga yoga: first(and most importantly) you have to take your socks off,

 

 then you lay down on your back and kick your legs up in the air,

then you make a tunnel,

 

then you lean back,

 

then your reach up to the sky,

  

then you touch your toes,

 

then you stretch your arms,

 

then you lay on your stomach,

then you jump around the room conga style and you're done!

adam and i have been getting back into the swing of our old yoga routine.  it feels great.  i learned ashtanga yoga from my aunt when i was like 15 and let me just say that it does the body good, especially when you make it part of your daily rhythm.  i feel like all of my muscles work better  having made an effort to stretch them properly.  i also have less joint pain and adam says his back pain goes away(which makes sense with all of the hamstring stretching... that man is so tense).  i recently read a post over at shivaya naturals(i love her) about doing yoga with children that was really neat.  i think there is a lot of truth to the healing power of touch(and homeopathic medicine is fascinating to me... if i ever went back to school that would definitely be on my list of things to study) and being in tune with your body.  i really like how she uses yoga as a way to teach young children to learn to relax(we all need to learn that a little better).  i had also realized that we were often ending our evenings with a wrestling session and then throwing our kids right in to bed.  they would go to sleep, but it was definitely hard for them to wind down. 

madeleine

 

we've had a revelation around these parts: madeleines straight out of the oven with powdered sugar on them are THE BEST.