Sub-optimal Photo Shoot

Despite promising my kids ice cream sandwiches for participating, I did not get a stellar picture for our holiday card. My sister, mom and best friend agree that the first picture is ok but not "holiday card worthy". I know, I know-- it's a little late to be starting this process but better late than never, right? I don't think I have it in me to try again. It's too annoying and so not me. Perhaps I will let Talia just draw a picture of our family this year. It's Shayna's first holiday card though and I don't want to give her the shaft. She was the one who wasn't participating which is strange because she's such a smiley kid. Must have been hungry/tired/etc. Well consider this your holiday card people-- we might not be sending them this year!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Wishing you all the best in the new year!

Hanukkah Garland

Talia is so jealous of all the Christmas decorations she sees in our neighborhood so I try to make her feel special by putting up Hanukkah decorations in our home. When I was growing up you couldn't GET Hanukkah decorations anywhere so ours were all homemade-- even though we weren't such a crafty family (well, I always was but certainly no one else...). Now you can Hanukkah decorations at Bed Bath and Beyond, Party City, Target and certainly online. I even bought some strings of lights with dreidels on them for this year. I wouldn't want them to be mistaken as Christmas lights, so I think I'll keep them inside.

I've been collecting Hanukkah fabric for a few years now. I wasn't sure what I'd do with it. I still might make a quick quilt but it would suck to work on something you can only use for a few weeks out of the year. I ended up making a Hanukkah Garland to hang in the house. I just looked at different garlands on flickr and came up with the concept. I made a dreidel template, cut them out of each fabric and appliqued the letters for "Happy Hanukkah" on it. I used a Jewish star to separate the two words, tucked it all into some navy bias tape and hung it up. I added silver, gold and blue ribbon in between the letters "for fancy" as Talia would say. I wish I used some interfacing to stiffen up the pieces. I knew I should but I was lazy as usual. It only took two or three days and interfacing would certainly have slowed me down. I'm always in too much of a hurry-- especially when the project is not a gift... A lesson learned, I suppose.

April Fools

Gummi worms on the toothbrush. Classic. Accompanied by giggles, winks, and a cute "Don't forget to brush you teeth tomorrow Daddy!" followed by peels of laughter.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I felt really rushed to get Talia's valentines done for school. I wanted to have Talia help me with everything but there just wasn't time after our vacation. Plus, there wasn't really any moment I had with just Talia and not Alex, who would not have done well with a big package of birdseed or the oven. I baked up little heart shaped birdseed feeders using the recipe from Family Fun magazine (3/4 c birdseed, 2 tbl flour, 2 tbl water mixed and pressed into cookie cutters or muffin tins and baked at 175 degrees for an hour. Insert a straw for the hole and leave it in during baking). I found these cute bird valentines online and printed them. Talia is still working on signing each one-- she can only do about 8 before going bonkers. There are 22 kids in the class plus 3 teachers. I packaged them up into ziploc bags that have hearts printed on them. They are quite cute but were definitely a pain in the ass to make. Plus I'm afraid the kids will think they are cookies or granola bars. I'm sure someone will try to eat them.

100 days of school

Of course, considering that Talia only goes to school 3 days a week it's really the 70th day of school, minus about 10 days of vacation and sickness so it's really the 60th day of school but... who's counting? And seriously, why do we need a "holiday" that falls *literally* the day before the Valentine's Day party? To celebrate this wonderful holiday the children are asked to bring in 100 of something. In order to represent who Talia is we thought maybe 100 crayons or markers or stickers. To make it a little more creative and waste more of my time we decided to make 100 heart crayons, reminiscent of our valentines from last year. Talia was able to help more this time around-- she was an expert at getting the papers off the crayons that had been soaked in water. This project took too much of my time, as usual, but the payoff is nice. I'm sure her class will enjoy using them for a long time. On a side note, I had to count them about 8 times to make sure I have exactly 100. I'm still not sure I have exactly 100. And if I couldn't count them, how are the kids going to count them?

Happy New Year

Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy new year!

Latkes-- Finally! with zaatar aioli

We finally made latkes for Hanukkah. I waited until my in-laws were here-- that way the trouble it takes to make them would be worth it and they could do most of the clean up (Thanks!). Actually, I didn't make them at all. Ron did most of the work. Ron doesn't cook much but certain things must seem like a "man's job" to him-- making pancakes, eggs, grilling outdoors, cooking edamame and making latkes. Those are his specialties. We used a simple recipe. What I contributed, however, was a delicious za'atar aioli.

Latkes
This very basic potato pancake recipe is from Jewish Cookery by Leah W. Leonard (Crown Publishers, 1949). It always works.
Serves 4-6.

6 medium potatoes
1 onion
2 eggs
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
Vegetable shortening or oil for deep frying (I use peanut oil, but any kind of vegetable oil will do)

Pare and grate potatoes into a mixing bowl. Squeeze out liquid. Peel and grate onion into potatoes. (I grate both together in the food processor). Add eggs, flour and salt and stir to make a smooth batter that will drop heavily from the spoon. Heap the shortening in a heavy frying pan (use a heavy, cast-iron skillet for the best results), using enough to cover the pancakes amply — about a 1/2-inch deep. Drop the batter from a spoon into the hot shortening, making pancakes about 3 inches in diameter. Fry over moderate heat until brown on the underside, turn to brown other side. Lift out and drain off excess fat on paper towel. Serve plain, with sour cream or applesauce.

ZA'ATAR AIOLI

1 large garlic clove, peeled
1 cup mayonnaise
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup za'atar spice mix

Halloween 2009- Chocolate Chip Cookie Costumes

Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I never really wanted to make my kids constumes because it seemed like you could get whatever you wanted for a reasonable price. I feel like making a princess dress would take me a lot longer and cost me more than the $30 it costs to buy one. This year I found the perfect Annie dress for Talia at a thrift store and even found red/orange hair dye. I figured that would be easy and she was on board. Then my sister asked me to make my niece Marley a cookie treat bag to carry with her Cookie Monster costume. I made the mistake of bringing Talia with me to buy the fabric and she said she wanted to be a cookie and match with Alex for Halloween. I basically had the kids lay down on the polarfleece fabric and then I drew a circle around them. I fused on the chocolate chips on and the appliqued a cute swirl pattern on them. Sewed the two pieces together leaving the neck and the bottom open for legs. I think the key element was cutting the arm holes into the front of the fabric, which I just did with the costumes already on the kids. I googled some images for advice and noticed that all the M&M costumes had this done. On my own I would have left the armholes in the side seams. I tried to sew boning into the seams to make it seem more round but it didn't look better, it looked worse and stiff too.

Of course Talia ended up not wanting to wear the cookie costume and went as Cinderella (again) to the Halloween parade and party at school yesterday. All day today she wore her Cinderella costume and then at the last minute she wanted to be the cookie. I recognize that Halloween is a holiday for kids and I shouldn't be personally invested in what my kids wear. She said this morning, "Well, if you really want me to be a cookie I will..." and I told her that it really didn't matter to me and she could be whatever she wanted. Secretly I was really happy she chose the cookie. I wore an apron and a chef's hat and carried a spatula and we got many many compliments on our attire. Whew!

Recent Outdoor Activities/ Happy New Year

At this time in our lives, we find it rather difficult to take to the kids to synagogue, despite our desire to participate more fully in Judaism. When we do go we end up sitting with Talia in the preschool service, where she doesn't want to join in or following Alex around the playroom, where he is too young to stay for babysitting and perhaps wouldn't be happy there without us. One of the ways we observed the Jewish holidays this year was to spend a little time in shul and a lot of time outdoors together as a family. This year we went to Olbrich Gardens and Devil's Lake. The leaves were changing, the sun was shining, the breeze was refreshing and it helped us to feel like there is a difference between these fall days of the new year and summer days of the previous year. It gave us a moment (just a quick moment-- there was a lake the kids could fall into!) to appreciate the good things in our lives, to feel determined to change what might not be perfect, and how to be better people to each other and ourselves. We even got a little tiyul in without too much complaining from the little ones. We have a fabulous family and very fortunate in our health and happiness. I am enthusiastic about this upcoming election and the positive direction we can all take as a country after these rough times. L'Shana Tova-- Here's to a great year!

Best Valentines Ever! Melted Heart Crayons

1. Soak the crayons in water for about 30 minutes. The papers should come right off.
2. Break or cut the crayons into at least 4 pieces each.
3. Fill a silicone heart pan (each heart should be filled to the top) with the crayons.
4. Bake on a cookie sheet in a preheated oven at 250 degrees. Keep a close eye on them. You want the crayons to be completely melted but if you leave them for too long the colors will mix to brown. I think it took less than 10 minutes for each batch. Be careful not to jostle them around when you take them out of the oven, so they don't mix.
5. Let cool on a rack. I put them in the freezer after a few minutes of cooling on the rack-- that way I could take them out sooner (after about 20 minutes) and put in another batch.

I used about 150 crayons (all our old crayons and a new box of 96) for 48 hearts.

Admittedly, Talia only helped with filling the heart pan up and watching them in the oven. She broke a few too said it hurt her hand. I, however, had a lot of fun. They are quite satisfying to make!

Mexico Vacation

Great vacation in Mexico with my Mom, Dad, Mikey, Jo, Brett, Marley and Talia. Ron and Alex stayed home-- Ron had to work and my mother-in-law watched Alex (Thank you!). I knew I couldn't take both kids with me on an airplane to Mexico and I'm really glad I didn't bring him because we had a nightmare of a time in Mexico City. We missed our connecting flight to Puerta Vallarta and had to scramble for another flight two days before Christmas and ended up staying in a hotel overnight there. The airport was so crowded, we lost our stroller and I had to pull all of our luggage (two suitcases and two carryons) everywhere around the huge airport. Talia was so good during all of this but I was frantic that somehow we would get separated. Anyway, all that was behind us as we arrived at the hotel in Puerta Vallarta and we had a wonderful time. We relaxed, swam, read, played, etc. Thank you Mom and Dad for a fantastic time!

A Sweet Pesach

We had two very nice seders-- one with friends and one with family. Here are some of the pictures. Of course, it's the third day of Passover right now and I still haven't cleaned out my kitchen or bought any Pesach food.