A Tea-Riffic Birthday Party!

Here are some pictures from TOH's sixth birthday party. She had a tea party with all her little girl friends. Ace and Deuce were bribed to go by permitting them to go see the
Spiderwick Chronicles afterwards. But I think they had a nice time nevertheless.


The tea party was held at a local B&B, and a very nice lady-owner ran the tea and made the very scrumptious looking treats and sandwiches and stuff. The little girls really used their best manners. It was a very sweet scene. Afterwards, the kids were allowed to look at the neat bedrooms and check out the balconies.

My daughter's favorite gift was a Disney Cinderella digital clock (?) She loved it so much she slept with it last night. I imagine it was lumpy.

Now to get on to writing those thank you notes!

Potato Bread

This is the bread I made today. It is a tall, soft loaf. Very delicious. The recipe is from the "Best Breads of 1987" - No idea what magazine, maybe Good Housekeeping, or BH & G.

Potato Bread

2 Tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons salt
2 pks. active dry yeast (I used 4 tsps.)
about 8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cups water (I used the water I cooked the potatoes in)
1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes (about 2 medium)
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs

In a large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 1 1/2 cup flour. In a 2 quart saucepan mix water, mashed potatoes, and milk; add butter or margarine; over low heat, heat until very warm (120 to 130 degrees F), stirring often. (Butter or margarine does not have to melt completely.) With a mixer at low speed (or a wooden spoon!) gradually beat liquid into the dry ingredients just until blended; beat in eggs. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 more minutes, occasionally scraping the bowl. Beat in 1 cup flour to make a thick batter; continue beating 2 more minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough (about 3 cups).

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic, kneading in more flour (about 2 cups or so). Shape into a large bowl. Roll in oil so it is coated, cover, and let rise until about double.

Punch down, turn onto a lightly floured surface and cut dough in half. Put each half into a large loaf pan. (The original recipe had you putting each half into a casserole dish and slashing the top. I used regular large loaf pans and my bread was very good. You decide which you want to do.) Cut two parallel slashes on top. Cover, and let raise until double again, about 1 hour. Preheat oven to 4oo degrees, brush each loaf with milk, bake 40 minutes until loaves are well browned and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and cool on a rack.

pretty!!

Bread!!

I've been baking our family's bread for a few months. I think it is healthier and tastier. Normally I bake 4 loaves a time. I use the Hillbilly Housewife family bread recipe. It is just fine for our daily bread. Usually the first loaf is gone within 30 minutes of coming out of the oven. The next is gone by the end of the day. The third and fourth loaves take a couple of days. I think I'm saving money, not sure, but with bread loaves costing $2.00 or more a piece at the store, and I can get 2 whole bags of flour for that price (white at Aldi), I somehow feel that I'm coming out ahead. Not to mention the idea that my family isn't eating a whole bunch of additives and preservatives. I'm not a real fanatic about that, just would rather not, thanks.

So today I made Italian Bread. (No recipe, just basic white bread with the addition of olive oil and some sesame seeds over the top.) I was able to snap a picture of it before the kids got their hands on it. What do you think?? Can you smell it though your computer?

Curriculum Review and a UFO report

On Monday, Ace begun her new math book. We are using Singapore's New Elementary Math, Book 1. You can look at it here. Well, it's been a week and I can say, so far, so good. It is more advanced, but Ace has completed the Singapore Primary Mathematic course, so she is ready.

The toughest adjustment is that she actually has to write out the problems and solve them on notepaper, not fill in the blank in a workbook. Anyone who uses Singapore will be familiar with this if they do the Practices in the textbook. There is a workbook for NEM, but it is mainly test papers to follow up finishing a chapter or section. Not for daily work. Otherwise, I think it will be rigorous, but not too difficult. I hope the explanation in the book will be sufficient for learning the skills, though, because there are no other explanation - even the solution manual has no teaching strategy, and the teacher's manual is mainly a schedule to get it all done in a year, and solutions to the workbook. We will have to update as it goes. I asked Ace what she thought of the new math book. Here was her response:
Just kidding, I just thought that this picture was hilarious.

In other news, Three just finished her Singapore Earlybird 2B today - with flying colors!! Yaay!

Big Smiles!!

Now for the UFO report. You might remember the list of 13 UFO's I posted. Well, I've made real progress on Ace's sweater. I've finished the back, and have begun the front. Yay me! In the meantime I've also knitted a couple of hats. Pictures sometime.

RED!!!

So I decided to dye my hair - This is nothing new, since my hair went grey back in the 1990's, I've been diy-ing my own. Normally it is either light ash brown or dark ash blonde, depending on whether it is summer or winter. Maybe I'm a little tired of shades with the word "ash" in them, or just need a (major) change, but I decided that this time I'd try auburn.

I can't say it looks auburn. It looks more like this:Does that mean that I deserve a break today?

Man, I hope so.
Or at least free burgers.

When was the last time you blogged?

Mea Culpa!

I've been in the middle of my life, and haven't really touched the keyboard, except to check my e-mail and download soup recipes. No excuse really, just that my dear hubby has been traveling an awful lot, and by the time evening rolls around I'm just to pooped to think of anything interesting to say.

Except have you ever experienced a panic attack? I don't mean a moment of panic, but a real, middle of the night, heart pounding, think you are having a cardiac arrest, panic attack? I've had a couple now (conveniently when my husband is traveling) and they must be stopped. My girlfriend asked me, well, what do you do for you? I thought she was asking something in a foreign language, so I just looked at her with a blank look, but she continued, that maybe I need to blog more about the stuff that I feel anxious about.

Sorry, no.

I will keep my anxiety in a little box with my irrational fears, and maybe my paranoia as well, and it can be one big party in there, and I will not look and see what that noise is, because it might really be something this time, and I really, really don't want that, so there.

In other words, my anxiety isn't up for blogging. Unless the panic attacks get really bad. Maybe then, unless I'm dying of a heart attack.

I saw some friends for breakfast this morning. I've decided that I need to tap into my friends' creativity more - one of them SPINS FIBER!!! and the other one does floral arranging type stuff. These are things I cannot do. Not that I've tried spinning, but my floral arranging looks like something that my 5 year old did -- and she has a better idea of it than me. (the joke here is that I did my own flowers for my wedding) They looked o.k. Still they'd look better if I had any actual skill, rather than enthusiasm. (loads of that, though.)

So that is it in a nutshell, aren't you glad you asked?