Rainbows and Play-Doh

Someone

looked ridiculously cute at the wedding this weekend.  Well done, Bear, and CONGRATULATIONS again A & D!

Since the day- heck, weekend!, had a rainbow theme to it, I'm carrying colors in to this week with a post about my favorite kind of homemade play-doh.  Somewhere along the line I acquired a "recipe" for the stuff and it's been my go-to ever since.  It's simply printed on a a piece of paper with the credit going to "Erica, a reader from Pittsburgh, PA."  So, thanks Erica.

Play-Doh wih Kool-Aid
4C flour
4C water
1 envelope unsweetened powdered Kool-Aid
1C salt
4C water
4T oil
1/2C cream of tartar  
Mix everything in a medium size pot.  Cook and stir over low/medium heat until dough is completely formed and no longer sticky (approx. 8-10 minutes).  Cool and store in an air tight container with a slightly damp paper towel or cloth.
 

                     (how do you take a flattering picture of play-doh?!)

It is quick to make and produces a large quantity.  The Kool-Aid makes it smell sooooo yummy- my tip about coloring would be that you could have all the colored packets on hand that you want and then sprinkle each color into the base dough until it is just the right hue for you.  That way, you could make the whole rainbow of colors if you'd like and still have Kool-Aid left over for the next time you make play-doh.

Cream of tartar isn't hard to find and is quite cheap if you buy it in bulk at a health food store like we do.  The doh lasts for some time if you remember to keep it sealed when not in use and the towel a bit damp.  

Orange and cherry and grape scents?  I'll take that over the true "Play Doh smell" any day!

Wonderful Whirlwind

Hi all!  Hope you are doing spectacular- I surely am.  There have been oodles of things going on in my life right now, so I've been the smart blogger I promised myself to be, and put updating posts to the back of my mind these past few days.  Are you proud of me?!


Among a root canal, midwife appointments and possible big news for Champ (I hope to tell you more on that soon), we've found time for memory making.


This past weekend, we had many small friends filling our home with gleeful energy.  It was awesome.

                   
When it rained, we window watched the otter and geese and beaver.  Oh, and we had a friendly wager going on the Preakness.

When it was sunny, we stocked the pond with special ordered trout.  The boys were especially delighted with the prospects.

While us girls were too, I was more interested in photographing that gorgeous camera rather than the fish (truth be told).

And in between the periods of water drops and sunshine?  We relaxed...

It's, um, very relaxing here.  We were sad to see our friends go come Monday, but no sooner did they leave than wedding preparations began.  Yup, breakfast was made, the reading practiced (a Dr. Seuss story- how cool is that?!) and cummerbund sewn all in anticipation of not one, but a TWO PART wedding.

We were honored to host the Vermont wedding and we look forward to continuing the celebration in New York.  In the meantime, forgive me for being away this long and pardon me for the neglect that will be happening around these parts until next week.  June's a new month, right?


Wishing you the same happiness and contentedness that is enveloping me during these days of memory making moments.

XOXO,

Hunger pains

Happy day to you all- I am excited to announce that my very first guest post has gone up!

       (me, not sure how many people will actually enjoy the thing)

I wrote about the pangs of pregnancy hunger over at Teddy's perfectly inspired blog, "I Heart Maternity".  She's doing a series on pregnancy entitled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".  Which one did I focus on?  Well, zip on over there and see if you can figure it out (hint, it certainly wasn't "good").

As for any hearty soul who made your way back here- WELCOME!  I am honored and humbled that you chose to stop by; take your time, look around and make yourself comfortable.

I most certainly do heart maternity, but I heart new friends and followers too, so if you chose to stay for the long run, let me know so that I can link back to you.

perpetually hungry yours, 

In celebration of Mothers and Fiddleheads

Before Mother's Day, comes BIRTHDAY.  Sterling's birthday to be specific.  We celebrated in full regalia.

 And since that got us in the spirit of things, this Mother's Day was quite festive with celebrations.  The smaller, more personalized celebrations of having just about finished a knitting project and the delighted feeling of having been on a successful yard sale hunt.  Don't look too closely- you may soon be receiving one of those items as a gift.

 
And then there were the larger celebrations.  The celebration of food (a huge deal to this pregnant Mama right now): in the gifting of fresh fiddleheads for Friday's dinner- OOOOH thank you, L!  And in the unexpected dining out before attending a play with Champ on date night.  

I rejoiced in the new, delicious yarn purchased for an upcoming project and in the way Bear woke me up before church with a proudly painted flowerpot in his hands.  This, the independent creating of his Mother's Day gift, was the first of 2 goals met for him that day.  The second: his new found fearlessness on the skate ramps. 

Indeed Oh Lord, bless the Mamas.

Hope your weekends and Mother's Days were full of celebrations of bravery, foraged food and love, too!

It's not a stick

So it was recently May Day, right?  Well, I wanted to celebrate in full force, I did, but then as I thought about it,  obstacles came up.  We have no neighbors to speak of, nor flowers currently blooming so the whole dropping off of May baskets thing didn't make much sense.  I also had 2 toddler boys on my hands for May Day and they were not into singing around a May Pole while weaving streamers.

Then, a thought...

Hey?  why not use sticks instead of a pole?  All toddlers love sticks! And there you have it, we made "May Day Sticks".  And yes, the finished product was full of pomp and circumstance and rituals and well, bark.

There wasn't too much to them; just branches, some dyed strips of muslin, scraps of yarn and a few buttons and bells.  I was most excited over the fact that I was able to dye the muslin with FROZEN vegetables!!!  I had a few stray bags of beets and cabbage left over from our CSA season and I knew we weren't about to finish them off anytime soon.  I boiled them up for about 15 minutes, plunked the muslin in each pot and waited.  To my amazement, it worked! 

We read an abbreviated fairy tale about Persephone and the season of Spring and then moved on to "Not a Stick" by Antoinette Portis.

Indeed, our May Sticks were anything BUT just sticks.  On this festive day they were magic wands, mini May Poles, drum major maces and creative pointers.

In fact, I'm using my May Stick to direct you right on over to Jessa's blog, Doxie Noodle.  She's currently running a Voice Library Giveaway- go check it out!

Buntastic

It is the calm before the storm right now- literally.  The skies are darkening and the umbrella over the patio furniture really should be folded down before it blows into the woods.

I love days like this.  Somehow things seem to slow down on stormy days even if in actuality they don't.  Of course, it helps that Pandora is playing a bit of Krishna Das for me, I'm sipping some sun tea I made, Bear and his buddy, C, are cozy in their beds and I am finally settled in and ready to blog for the week. 

So what about that burger up there?  It is a turkey burger with all kinds of goodies hidden in it like apples and flaxseed, but I'm not here to talk about the meat, I'm here to talk about the roll because another thing besides a rainstorm that makes me calm and happy is a quick and easy roll recipe!  I've finally got one and I'm willing to share.

What follows is an adaptation on pizza crust.  It offers you the potential to come home to a conundrum of ground meat just aching to be burgers, but no buns to put them on: 30 minutes later and you've got dinner!!!

3C flour (mix and match if you want as long as 1.5C is a version of white)
2T or 2 packets of yeast
1t salt
1C warm water
2T olive oil

- combine all ingredients and knead for 2-3 minutes- I usually use my Kitchen Aid to do this while I prep the burgers.  Preheat oven to 425* and grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal.  Roll dough into desired ball size ( I usually can get 6 rolls out of a batch of dough, especially since I make the one for Bear a little smaller) and place on baking sheet.  If you have time, allow dough to rise for 10 minutes (if not, bake immediately).  Bake for 12-15 minutes.

field notes: I added 1/2 t rosemary to the dough since I love that herb with turkey and then I brushed melted butter over the baked buns and sprinkled them with coarse salt and some more rosemary.  They were heavenly...

    
We all enjoyed juicy turkey burgers with savory, home baked rolls at a decent dinner hour because eating turkey at 8 or 9 at night?  That's for the birds.