angry chicken

delivered cappuccinos and alec baldwin

I have been listening to podcasts in my early morning walks around the house with my back thing. One of my favorites (along with This American Life—any episode from any time) is Alec Baldwin's Here's the Thing. This interview with Paula Pell is so dang funny and interesting to me. Everyone he interviews is fascinating. I think Brian Williams just sounds like the niceset guy ever. There's also this video thing Jerry Seinfeld has Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Which is just what it sounds like. My brother told me about it. The one with Alec Balwid is really funny. It's the only one I've seen, actually. I'm saving them. But come on Jerry, where's the funny women? They drink coffee!

And why is there not a delivery espresso truck in existence? I think this is a great idea. Like for right now, at 6:31 am. They could drive up and make it to order. I know the average sale price wouldn't be enough to offset the gas. But I can still dream. Maybe it could be like an ice cream truck. It could just cruise around playing some cool early morning music. (Christopher Cross.) I could have a standing order, like 3 times a week they could come by between 6-8am. I could have a tab. And it's Portland, so it wouldn't be from a truck, it would be from a bike. Wait. Does this exist? I think it might. If it gets weird, it probably already exists here. I need to do some research. But now that I think of it, there would need to be plumbing, right? And electrical. Would a Vanagon work for this? Man. I know some people can make their espresso drinks at home, but a hardcore 5oz dry cappuccino requires tools I just don't have.

why we keep phone books.

We use a lot of glue sticks in this house. And I'm all about scratch paper for gluing. I used to grab newspaper for this, but I usually ended up using whatever was handy and it was often a half-finished drawing. Then it would get glued on and people would get sad. Enter the phone book. I would have never thought to keep them, but they are perfect for using under enthusiastic gluestick application. When the gluing is done, you just turn the page and have a fresh new sheet to glue on! Brilliant!

I got this tip from my friend Carolyn long ago and it's been so handy. I need to remind my pack-rat daughter that it doesn't mean we need to forever keep all the phone books we get. 3 is plenty. There have been talks about gluing together the phone books to make a tower of phone books, which is intriguing, and may make us start keeping more.

homemade creamsicle buttermints

We made buttermints from scratch today using the recipe here.

I got the idea for this from Mariko who showed some she made on instagram. She's usually behind my craziest food making urges— items that are totally silly, and fun to make. I was going to use the recipe I found at Land O' Lakes, but used the one I linked to instead, which ended up being the one from the book Mariko used, I believe. These are not mint flavored, but flavored with orange and vanilla. The orange extract I got at New Seasons, it's all natural, which is great. The vanilla extract I make and have a lot of it so I use it in everything. These taste exactly like the frosting on the orange hostess cupcakes that I love, minus the creep chemical aftertaste.

These are a light yelow. I think more of an orange color would be better. I realize they look a lot like gnocchi, but I assure you, they are candy. That white stuff is powdered sugar. That's my 5 year old with the knife. They are so pleasing to make. It's like playdough, only softer and you can flavor and dye it any color. Endless possibilities! It's really just a buttercream frosting with a lot of powdered sugar. So simple. And so not needed in our house. I pop a few of these and chase it with mini-pretzels and a slug of coffee.

food meant to look like eggs but are not eggs

I'm trying to collect images of faux-egg edibles when I can. I didn't buy these, but I think I should. They look both delicious and nasty. And, I'd like to make these egg shaped cakes with the lemon curd filling. My grandmother would be so proud if I did. I'm sad to say my ability to eat more than one Cadbury creme egg a year is gone, but I can still eat multiples of the caramel ones.

But wait, Happy St. Patrick's Day! We also celebrated Pi Day last week with 3 different types of pie. We didn't go to Pie Spot, I was worried it would be insane, but I highly recommend going. Last time I was there I almost cried a little the mini pies (pie holes) were so good.

candy terrariums

I saw this simple/brilliant idea for candy terrariums over at Martha. It is a video. Delia watched it and having never seen her before said, "She's pretty good." which cracked me up. These little glass bowls were from the dollar store, which was a real saving compared to the expensive fancy candy I had to get from our favorite candy shop. It all evened out. A friend asked if were were planning to keep the rabbits alive in there, only to eat them later? Yes, we are.

There's some really pretty spring terrariums using plants (not candy) over at Pink Pistachio.

new favorite comic

We picked up a few of these pet-manga books, Chi's Sweet Home, at the library and they quickly became very important in our house. All the girls love them. They are really sweet, with some wonderfully written cute/sad parts that make them all crazy. They reminded me of how I felt when I watched Snoopy Come Home, which made me explode with cute/sad emotions when I was about 8. I almost thought I would die.

In other news-

• I'm taking a break from the vest I am knitting to start a sweater for the middle child—a raglan sleeve, top-down. I used Raglanify (thanks Mariko) and it's going great so far.
• I plan to try Blue Star Dounts soon. I have heard mixed reviews, clearly I need to investigate.

 

knitting while standing

I have been standing a lot the last month, only sitting while I drive. For real. I know of evey place in town where I can eat standing up and not get weird looks or nice people asking me if I need a chair. The food carts are always good. And any bakery. My back is getting better, physical therapy has been really helpful, but sitting is sill hard and off limits, which is depressing, to be honest. It's hard to get cozy while standing.

As with any health issue (or like having a small baby) the change in what I can and can't do makes my life different in ways I wouldn't have imagined. So it's pretty cool. (Sort of. See the attempt at a positive spin?) For instance, I have learned to knit easily while standing. The last sweater and this vest (which is half done) were knit standing AND because I need to get up in the night (again, like with babies) to get my bulging disk back in place before I can sleep again (ick) I have been watching weird shows on the computer. All by myself. With no thought or pressure behind the choices. It's great. Before the back thing I never would let myself do that, I always feel guilty not doing something else (but I am still knitting mind you). It's fun and frivolous, even if I am cold, grumpy, and up at 4am in the morning in pain.

I was watching Kingdom, a great tip from my Steven Fry loving Grammie, and then season 2 of Portlandia (Netflix instant is my friend) and then over the weekend I freaked out watching 4 episodes of a show called Tabletop (not on Netflix, but free) where you watch people play board games. Wow, really? It sounds boring and geeky as all get out, and like maybe something you would only watch at 4am when you are in back pain, but I can't tell you how funny and how rad it is. This one is my favorite right now. Warning, there's swearing and bleeping and off-color humor, which makes it entertaining, but not for kids.

We play table top games in this house and while we are still newbies, the girls are getting more into them and Pete and I are too. The trick is to find good ones we can teach them without taking an hour (or more) to learn them ourselves. The beauty of this show is that it also teaches you how to play these games, which is so helpful. I can instantly get a sense if a game will be good for all of us in terms of complexity. I know I could go to a gaming night to learn at a local game shop, but I'd have to stand (weird) and also leave the house, which can be hard sometimes, except for when it's not, but I never know when that will be.

Unrelated-

• I have been listening to Caro Emerald and just love her happy retro sound.

• Grammie is hanging in there. She's halfway through chemo, and on to a different chemo drug, with its own set of lame side effects which are keeping us busy, but she, as always, is a real trooper and looks fab in her hand knit hat. (The model here is mariko, the knitter, not Grammie.)

whole grain flour blend in a huge jar

For a long time I used to buy all the little bags of various flours at Bob's Red Mill and keep them in the  freezer and then add them to whatever I am baking. The thing is, they make a mess (because I tear them open like a deranged squirrel) and for one recipe I might pull out 5 flours and it was just making me crazy, so a few years ago, after receiving a few HUGE glass jars from my grandparents' belongings, I got smart, and filled it with a whole grain flour blend I make every so often. I keep it in the fridge, so when I need it, 5-6 flours are in one spot, already mixed and ready to go.

This comes with some limitations I've gotten used to. Because I don't ever write down what's in there, or how much, I can't exactly reproduce it. Also, I use this blend in almost everything I bake, which isn't always a perfect choice, but I'm just not that picky, and for the most part it's really good. Fancy light cakes and biscuits/scones don't work well with this blend. But for almost everything else I bake, it's lovely.

I use 1/2 the amount of required flour with the homemade blend and 1/2 with unbleached white. Then I usually have to add a bit more liquid. It's really forgiving in muffins, cookies, brownies, gingerbread, pancakes, waffles, cornbreads and quickbreads. Anything chcocolate is great, just nothing that needs to be light and airy.

In my mix right now is (from what I rememeber and the amounts might be different):

• 1 part Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 part Buckwheat Flour (this makes the batter turn a bit blue, which you can't see in this photo)
• 1 part Oat Flour
• 1 part Teff Flour
• 1/4 part Rye Flour

I like the muffin recipes from King Arthur and Smitten Kitchen, I don't always add the fruit I just use them as a base.