First day of School 2015

Lest I forget, I wanted to write two funny stories from the first day of school.

Chase started Kindergarten this year.  As we were getting ready in the morning I overheard him say to Austin, "Austin, school starts today. Isn't that just SO EXCITING!"  And he truly meant it.  The sincerity in his voice and the enthusiasm he expressed made it sound like this was the best day of his life.  Certainly it was the most highly anticipated.

Cameron started preschool at the same school Austin and Chase go to and he is going 4 times a week for 3 hours every afternoon.  It's the first time I haven't had a kid home with me in over 11 years - I'm not sure what to do with  myself.  I digress.  He is in the same class room Chase was last year, with the same teacher and three of the same students.  One of the other kids is  also Cameron.  They decided to call the other boy Cameron and my boy Cam.  We call him Cam at home all the time, so I thought this would be fine.  But no.  The teacher, Miss Gina, informed me that he refuses to answer to Cam.  He was sitting next to her and she said, "Cam" and he looked the other way and wouldn't respond until she called him Cameron.  What a STINKER!  So now they have Cameron N and Cameron J.

Austin started 2nd grade.  Somehow almost all of his friends ended up in the same class together.  Lucky lucky boy.

Bryce started 6th grade and Middle School.  I'm fairly sure I'm projecting my own angst about middle school onto him.  I was a nervous wreck for him and he was completely (overly?) confident.  But so far, so good.

T-I-Double G -er

Seeing double?  Top is Austin circa 2010.  Bottom is Cameron 2014.  They could be brothers.  Oh wait... they are.

Welcome to New York

I had never been to New York, but my childhood friend, Amy, recently moved there and it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.  However, being the big chicken that I am, I didn't want to go to "the big City" all by myself, so I enlisted my SIL Jennie (who also knows Amy) to join me.  I am so glad she came.  (I'm so glad our awesome hubby's took on full time solo parenting for 4 days so we could go!)  It was an amazing great trip!  

Jennie and I both flew into LaGuardia airport and landed within about 15 minutes of each other (both flying standby, which is always a little risky - but it worked out this trip and we got first class both ways, plus there was a nonstop to and from both of our towns).  We met up in the airport, "Hailed" a taxi and made our way to Harlem to drop our stuff off at Amy's apartment before heading out on the town.

We were a little nervous - I won't lie.  Amy was in Mexico City our first day and a half, so we didn't have a built in tour guide (yikes!) but we took a deep breath and found the subway.  We let three trains go by before figuring out the Bronx was north and Brooklyn was south. Our first day was all about food, and Broadway.  We had to wait in a long line (in a cold drizzle) to get our tickets through TKTS in Times Square, and ended up seeing Once that night.  We LOVED it.  LOVED it.  I can't say enough good things about my first Broadway experience. 

The next day was tourist day.  

We started out the day going to see a taping of "Live with Kelly and Michael."  We had to be in line by 7:15, we didn't get in the doors until 8:15 and taping started at 9.  Bette Midler was a guest, but she'd been prerecorded... and then there was some other chick from Two Broke Girls. It was fun to see the taping, but I don't need to do it again.  Kelly was TINY, Michael was charming, and Gelman was funny.

We walked around Central Park - even after only a day and a half it was so nice to see trees and green again, then went to lower Manhattan and started at Chinatown.  By this time we were "experts" at the subway (until Amy got there and then we just followed her).  We'd gone to Chinatown with the intent to get lunch there, but it was too intimidating, so we walked one block over and grabbed some great Italian food in Little Italy instead.  Got bought some scarves and had everyone trying to get us to buy watches and fake bags and we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Then we went to the Staten Island Ferry to float past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We chose this over Statue Cruises for the sake of time, convenience and cost.  Fast, free and super easy was a good decision.   

 We wandered around and froze to death in lower Manhattan, seeing the WTC memorials and the Financial District, before getting on a subway to meet up with Amy in Harlem.  Stupid us waited until rush hour to go north and the subways were PACKED.  There was no personal space whatsoever.  Bodies just pressed together. It was an experience I won't soon forget.  Harlem was super scary and rough about 15 years ago, but it's pretty decent now.  Amy's apartment is very spacious.  It didn't give us a realistic view of New York living, but I'm OK with that.

That night Amy took us to a Thai restaurant called Taste in the Upper West Side.  Over an hour long wait, but it was delicious.  The restaurant was just barely wide enough for one LONG row of tables with a long bench on one side and chairs on the other with a small aisle to walk behind.  That was it.  Kitchen and the back (swinging doors behind us in the pic) and a hostess at the front. There is such limited seating everywhere in NY.  Tiny tables, lots of people, lots of lines.  It would get old fast. 

The next day was my FAVORITE!  We started at the Museum of Modern Art.  We had about an hour and a half, and we saw just enough to get our fill but not nearly everything.  Then we went to Greenwich Village for our walking food tour.  It was fantastic. I highly recommend it and would do another one.  Great food, walking on a beautiful fall day, with a history lesson, plus great company made for great afternoon.  Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Egg Creme's (Italian Soda's basically), pizza, pastrami Sandwiches, Bagel Balls, canoli's - we were stuffed! The Village was very different than Harlem.  I liked it a lot. 

The exterior building from the TV show Friends. 

 Amy and Jennie noshing on the pizza.

 Bantam Bagel Balls (bagel dough with different fillings)

 The deli.

 The tour ended in Washington Square park where there was so much going on.  There was an honest to goodness bird lady.  There were heated chess battles raging, a group hustling with their comedy show, artist and musicians performing with lots of people milling about.  Perfection. 

 Close by was Chelsea Market, so we wandered through there a bit. It's full of food and boutique type stores.  I loved the spice store - it was just so pretty.

We were late getting show tickets that night, so we ended up seeing Cinderella.  It was cute but not our first choice.  Nothing amazing like Once.  But very fun and cute.

   

Our last day we did brunch at Jacob's Pickles on the Upper West Side.  We had almost a two hour wait, so we wandered around and happened by Cafe Lalo.  This was the restaurant in the movie You've Got Mail.  The first time Derek told me he loved me was after we watched this movie together.

 Apparently waffles and fried chicken is a thing here.  Jacob's Pickles had their own twist with pancakes and chicken.  It was worth trying, and it was good, just very very heavy.  Ugh.

 We got mani-pedi's after that from a man named Glitter.  He was fabulous, and so were our fingers and toes by the time we walked out.  Then we hailed another cab and made our way to the airport.  It was an amazing trip.  Jennie and I slept in Amy's bed together at night and stayed up talking and laughing.  It was like we were 14 years old having a slumber party!  Amy was an amazing host. It was a great trip.  

Sheri Baby

This is me at about 3 months old.  I was bald - just like my boys.  I had chunky legs- like one of the boys.  And that's where the similarities end.  It's a good thing I birthed them all or I'd question their maternity. 

Shelves

In a new house there are blissfully few home improvement projects that need to happen.  But our storage area in the basement desperately needed some shelves.

This picture is after I'd taken out most of the stuff. There was some concerns that Hoarders: Buried Alive was going to bust down our doors to feature all the crap we had shoved in there.

After careful Internet based research, Derek had Lowe's cut some lumber planks and, armed with his handy dandy drill and some decking nails, set his hand at flexing his Y Chromosome to build us some shelves.

They turned out great!  Please notice how the entire middle shelve is filled with baby paraphernalia that I just don't know what to do with.  Do I give it away?  Will we need it again?  I'm paralyzed with indecision (Derek is not so paralyzed - he wants to ditch it all).

We also had carpet remnants left over from earlier this week when they ripped out the original carpet that was laid (poorly) and installed new carpet (for free), so we rolled it out and our unfinished storage area is looking pretty decent now.

My Momma's Cinnamon Rolls

My mom makes the best cinnamon rolls.  I'm not bragging, it is simply a fact.  If you thought you, your mother, your sister, your neighbor or anyone else you've ever met makes the best rolls, I'm sorry to tell you, you are mistaken. Now that we've got that all cleared up, I'll continue.  She always makes them at Christmas.  She usually makes them before we come visit in the summer, and she will sometime make them when she's visiting us.  One always knows when cinnamon rolls are on her mind because she pulls out the biggest stainless steel bowl you have ever seen.  (Yes, she mixes her dough by hand.)  I do not own a bowl even close to it's mammoth proportions so I always have to half the recipe.  Except the first time I ever made the rolls by myself.  I was too young and inexperienced to realize just how much dough my mom's recipe makes.  About an hour into my first attempt I had Derek placed a panicked call to my parents.  I would have done it myself, but I was literally elbow deep in fluffy, sticky dough.  To say I was in over my head is not much of an overstatement.  I can still hear my dad laughing at me in my moment (hour) of panic.  Thanks Dad, now give Mom the PHONE!!!

I'm still working at getting making my rolls as good as my momma's, but every year I'm getting closer. One concession I've made to my already inferior product is I use my mixer.  It's too beautiful not to.  Disclaimer - I am not a food blogger nor am I attempting to be one.  But these cinnamon rolls just beg to be shared.

In the beginning... Did you know that the milk needs to be "scalded" to kill an enzyme that deactivates yeast?  Live and learn.  I used coconut milk instead of regular milk.  Works great.

Isn't yeast interesting.  That started out as a third cup of water.

 After it's all mixed, cover and let it rise. Tradition demands that it sit on your stove top with the light on over it.  Whether or not that makes it rise faster, I'm not really sure, but most traditions don't make all that much sense.

 After it's raised and fluffy, roll it out and spread the goop on.  If the goop is too hot it runs all over, so let it boil, then let it sit for a few minutes.

 Roll it up.  Good luck with that one.  Rolling it out flat and rolling it up poses the greatest risk of screwing up your rolls.  It should be thin, but not too thin.  And you'll need enough flour on the counter top so it doesn't stick, but not so much that it coats your dough.

 Slice them up. I use dental floss so they will still sort of resemble the shape I desire.  My mom uses a knife and produces perfect swirls.  It's crazy.

 Let them rise (again, on the stove under the light), then bake.  I love my convection oven. 

Love love love.

 Nice browned buns.  This is what half recipe looks like.

 Obviously we were a little anxious to eat them.  My mom makes icing.  My kids like frosting (also with coconut milk).  Either way is awesome. 

Our favorite way to eat them is with a big mug of hot chocolate.  Delicious!!!

Dough:

Dissolve 4 yeast cakes in 1/2 cup water and 2 T sugar - let grow until bubbly and frothy

Combine:

4 cups scalded milk

2 c sugar

1 1/2 cups oil

4 tsp salt

Mix in 3 cups of flour, then add the yeast mixture.  Add 9 cups of more flour, kneading to get a sticky but stiff batter.  (My mom's recipe actually says "Stir with a wooden spoon"... yeah, right.) Raise until double, roll out into a rectangle, spread filling (previously called goop), roll into a log and cut.  Place on a baking sheet (I think using a baking sheet gets a better caramelization on the bottom than using a glass 9x13).  Let rise for 2 hours then bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cool, then frost.

Filling (for a half recipe):

2 sticks of butter

2 cups brown sugar

7 tsp cinnamon

Melt on a stove top to slight boil.

Glaze:

1 stick of butter

4 c powdered sugar

1/2 c milk

Mix together then spread over the rolls.



What's in a name?

Cameron has some original naming skills for his stuffed animals.

 This is Doggie.

 This is Puppy (not to be confused with Doggie).

 This is George.

 This is Dolphin.

And this, well, this is Baby Bear, of course.

Of Course.