Let the thunder roll

Seattle has a very moderate climate for weather. In fact, I can remember two thunderstorms in the 10+ years I lived there. I've always missed the big thunderstorms that we used to get late in the summer on the east coast.

We had a storm this evening. Not a big one that rocks and rolls, but enough to scare the dogs and make the kids cuddle in close. Right before the storm started, I noticed a rainbow out our front window.

Big N thought it was pretty cool.



The rainbow from my office window. It was raining at this point, bluring the view through the glass just a bit.

Dinner tonight

We had planned on hamburgers tonight for dinner, that is until my daughter was napping and Pete was somewhere in the land management land with the dogs AND I realized we didn't have hamburger rolls.

Big N and I decided we could make some because there was no way I wanted to wake up little N to drag her off to the store on a Sunday afternoon.

The rolls smell fantastic. I had enough dough that I made a small round loaf for tomorrow.



We did a combinations of two recipes, one from the Hillbilly housewife's site and a second from An American Housewife's site.

The two recipes are very similar. I tend to lean more towards the the first one, omitting the powdered milk. I also opt to proof the yeast in warm water prior to adding it into my mixer with the dough hook attachment.

I do get a more consistent loaf using the mixer over kneading the bread by hand, which is fine by me. Its easier to clean up the bowl than my counter. However, the kids like helping with hand kneading more. If both kids are helping, we all knead it by hand.

Pete has only good things to say about all of the bread experiments thus far.

We love carbs!

Skinny Boy Vest

Here is Big N in his finished Christmas Easter Vest!





The completion of the vest hit a few snags. First, when I had originally finished it on December 23rd, the neck was too small for Big N's noggin with the neck band attached. The other problem is the size 4 was great around his mid-section, but beyond too short on his belly.

This observation resulted in removal of the neckband, and the poor vest languishing unfinished in a bag on the bottom shelf of my nightstand. The little bag, staring at me each night when I ignored it to go to sleep.

Finally, I brought the vest back out to work on it. I tore out the shoulder seams and added another cable repeat to the front and back. I re-seamed everything up, added the neckband and asked Big N try it on. It not only fit over his head, but the length was great with room to spare.

Big N promptly asked me if he could wear it to church on Sunday, this was Saturday. I said of course, and stayed up way too late Saturday night weaving in all the ends and finally adding the armbands. I will admit, the armbands match the sweater body because I had just woven in the 3 different colors at the waist and the neck. At that point, the vest had enough gray and cream as far as I was concerned at 11PM.





On Easter morning, Big N came running from his bedroom. He found me and asked me if I had finished his vest so he could wear it. The final result made him happy. This, of course, makes me happy.

Happy Easter

Big N and Little N colored eggs on Saturday. We used regular food dye to color them and the colors were really nice. You also have a lot more control over how deep the color is then the little tablet packets. Not to mention, you don't spend anything extra on a one-time use item.

The kids had a blast making a mess! My kitchen smelled like boiled eggs and vinegar for the rest of the night, but no one seemed to mind.



The spoon for lifting the eggs into and out of the dye cups apparently slowed everyone down way too much. Both kids figured out fast that the best egg dying utensils were their two hands. Big N's fingers are still slightly green 2 days later. Little N's have a hint of pink, but it seems to be fading much faster than our deep blue-green.



Little N appears to enjoy finding the eggs more than decorating them.





Happy Easter!

Baking with a three year old

You might never know...

The bread we served was especially delicious with the strawberry rhubarb jam we made last summer.

I didn't bother shaping it into a loaf, instead making a rustic loaf baked on the pizza stone.

Special Ingredient

Little N was watching me make some bread dough. I am planning on proofing it over night and baking it tomorrow before we have dinner with Pete's mom and sister.

Little N reached into the bowl and yanked off a piece of dough. I didn't stop her, there weren't any eggs in the recipe and I had sampled it myself to make sure it wasn't too salty. I turned around for a second and looked back to see her patting the dough with a pretty grossed out expression.

"Yucky! I put it back!"

The question is, will I bake and forget to mention our special ingredient or start from scratch...

April Sledding

This week the pass has been dumped on with snow, but today the weather was beautiful.

This morning we tossed the sled into the car and took the kids up to the pass to see if we could find a spot to sled. We finally ended up at one of the ski resorts. The summit had closed for the season. It was a bit of a hike in, where Pete and I would sink to our knees in the two feet of fresh snow, but the kids were fine as they road up the hill in the sled. We finally got to the cat track in front of the lodge and there was a slight hill, which was more than enough hill for little N and Big N.

Both kids had a blast.

We took a few photos with the cell phone.