Boreal Witch

As a child I did not practice experimental eating. It's doubtful I would have eaten anything ethnic, odd-named foods, or anything just plain disgusting. Rutabagas? Forget it. Artichokes? Nah. Pickled pigs' feet? Ew. My parents, being Midwesterners, considered casseroles the penultimate in dinner cuisine, which didn't help matters. So casseroles, the bland and boring meals that they are, were safe. Hamburger? Okay. Peas and carrots? Yup. Cream of something soup? I could get down with that.

When I left home, I became a little more adventurous when I cooked and what I ate. After I got married I rarely made casseroles. I now consider them unappetizing and unappealing.

Enter the turnip.

You probably would never, ever have caught me eating turnips as a child. They ranked right up there with foodstuffs like Brussels sprouts. Turnips sounded just plain weird. Luckily for turnips, they have such a mild flavor and lovely texture that even a kid would love them. Arthur ate two bowls of this delicious soup.

On the Menu: Creamy Turnip Soup
Serves 6-8

3 tablespoons butter
2 leeks, thinly sliced (white and pale green parts only)
1 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
5 turnips (about 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 medium russet potato, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices*
4 cups canned low-salt chicken broth
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup whipping cream
Pinch of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons dried dill

Melt butter in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks and onion and sauté until onion is translucent. Add sliced turnips and potato and sauté 2 minutes. Add 4 cups broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 30 minutes.

Puree soup in blender in batches until very smooth. Return to Dutch oven. Add milk and cream. Bring to simmer. Season to taste with nutmeg, salt, pepper, and dill.

* I used about 1/2 cup leftover mashed potato instead of a potato. The results were great!

Blessed be.

Balin has discovered his toes. It's like a passionate love affair. In the mornings when he gets up, the first thing he does is check to see if his toes are still there.

Yup. Still there.

But it's not just toes. Everything has started to go into his mouth, including his thumbs and fingers. Arthur was never really interested in his digits, but he loved his pacifier. If we'd have let him, he would have sucked the nipple off that thing. Balin, in contrast, loves to suck on any part of his body that he can get into his mouth, even his toes.

Here's my little contortionist, sucking away. This is Balin's normal look. Apparently, Robinson did the exact same thing when he was a baby. We have the picture to prove it.

Balin has even expressed interest in pacifiers. He used to spit them out every time we stuck one in his mouth; now if we put it in his hand, he'll stick it in his mouth and even suck on it for a bit. Still, he'll probably be sticking with toes for the time being.

Blessed be.

Arthur and I harvested our carrots today. We grew almost 3 pounds.

After some consideration, we decided to make Moroccan Carrot Dip simply because we didn't have the space in the freezer to put so many sliced carrots. Plus, in addition to being more versatile than regular carrots, the taste is out of this world! All of the dip was packaged in freezer jars and put in the freezer for later.

On the Menu: Moroccan Carrot Dip
Serves 4

For the dip:
1 lb. carrots, peeled and chopped into large pieces
1 clove garlic, peeled and left whole
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 pinch cayenne pepper
sea salt, to taste
1 tbs. honey
2 tbs. lemon juice
3 tbs. olive oil

To accompany:
green olives
pita bread, toasted

As a little girl, I loved Arnold Lobel. My absolute favorites were his Frog and Toad stories. I've been known to get a faraway look in my eyes and say, "Frog and Toad are friends" in the most inappropriate times, such as brushing my teeth.

Arthur also loves the Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel. One of his favorites is "Cookies" in which Toad makes cookies for Frog and they can't stop devouring them. Finally, after a break in their willpower, Frog gives all the cookies to birds.

This afternoon, I asked Arthur what kind of cookies he'd like to make and he said, "Frog Cookies." After a good 15-minute online search, I found numerous iced frog-shaped cookies (which would not do because Toad's cookies were more like chocolate chip) as well as a philosophical discussion about the story itself, a suitable recipe turned up here.

I was a bit skeptical, but the crush-up cereal added a nice crunch. Next time, I'd use less cereal - three cups instead of four. I also added a cup of raisins since I didn't have any chocolate chips. Here's my modified recipe.

On the Menu: Frog Cookies
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup raisins
1 cup rolled oats
3 cups crushed-up cereal* (I used granola and Cheerios)

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt, oats, raisins, and coconut. Once well-mixed, add the cereal a little at a time until incorporated. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into balls and squash gently. Bake for 10-14 minutes, depending on whether you want a chewy or crunchy cookie.

Blessed be.

* For extra fun, put the cereal into a large ziploc and let your children jump on it (like a frog!) to crush it.

When family members visit, I can expect certain things. When my mom comes to visit, she wants to visit the Santa Clause House and go shopping. When my sister Blythe comes to visit, she wants to go biking. When Becky comes to visit, she wants to go to Once Upon a Child.

I can now anticipate with some certainty that any future visits from my father and nephew Josh will be accompanied by toilet issues.

To be fair, Arthur played a role in this, too. He acted as instigator, administrator, and supreme deviant, so I'll have to be on guard in the future.

To sum it up, Josh had run out of toilet paper in the bathroom. I told Arthur to take some upstairs for him and heard hysterical laughing a few moments later. Arthur finally came downstairs, still laughing, and when I asked him what happened, he told me he had unraveled an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet. When I tried to explain how unfunny his actions were and demanded that he remove all of the excess paper from the toilet, he flushed it.

Needless to say, we were out of a toilet for several hours. On the bright side, it was fixed without the aid of a plumber.

I'm always looking for fun, easy games that I think Josh would like so that we can play them when he comes to visit. He doesn't really have the attention span for long, complex games and some of our games can take an hour to finish playing. At one of my frequent trips to Once Upon a Child, I found a copy of the game Loot and bought it. I had done some research on this particular game a while back and was curious about it, but didn't want to pay for the game in addition to shipping and handling in case we didn't like it.

I shouldn't have worried because Josh (and my dad) loved the game. In fact, they quickly became obsessed. For two nights in a row, they played well into the night. It seems Doodle Dice has met its match.

Overall, it was a good trip. It's always fun to have my dad and Josh come to visit.

Blessed be.

It's fair time!

We chose to visit the fair during the first Saturday for multiple reasons: 1) Kid's Day at the fair (kids were free, but Arthur, being only 3, was already free), 2) beautiful weather (unusual as it rains during the fair; it's frequently called "Fair Weather"), and 3) the Backhoe Rodeo (I'll have to wait until next year to find out what it is exactly because it was canceled)...

...in addition to the lure of Frickers, Navajo Tacos, and the Quilt Exhibit.

Interestingly, when we arrived at noon expecting the fair to be packed with families, the fairground was strangely deserted. No lines for food, rides, or shops. Even the hourly quilt show was pretty empty. It wasn't until about 4pm that the grounds became more crowded and by then we were more than ready to go.

Arthur discovered the joys of hill-rolling while we wolfed down dessert. He'd roll down the hill, run under the bridge, run back, then begin the process anew. He was more excited about the hill than dessert. Really.

I won fifth prize for a picture I entered in the Candid category. It's the one of Balin sticking his tongue out. Next year when I enter something I hope it will be a quilt. The last two years I've been so disappointed by the quilts that have been entered. So many of them have been, well, boring - the designs, the fabric, everything. Uninteresting. Yawn. Robinson constantly pesters me about making a quilt to enter and I intend to...once I finish all these gift quilts I've fallen behind on!

Arthur also got to play a couple games. He was immediately drawn to a fishing game - the same one we have at home, but on a much larger scale. He caught two fish and won a stuffed dolphin and a pixie stick as big as he is. He chose not to go on any of the rides, but as fair entertainment goes, he was still pretty happy. He's a bit afraid of (but intrigued by) the rides. Maybe in another year he'll be ready. It will be a blast to go on rides with Arthur.

Blessed be.

At about 5 months, Robinson and I felt it was time for Arthur to begin the arduous process of self-soothing. He already accepted and loved his pacifier, which helped greatly, but we did the research, started a bedtime routine (that surprisingly hasn't changed much to this day), and then left him in his crib.

I remember crying because my baby was crying. Robinson became the "Almighty Soother" and went in at various intervals to calm Arthur. After a few days, he got it and we haven't had much of a problem keeping him asleep. Sometimes getting him to bed is another matter...

Fast forward three years. I wanted to wait until Balin was 5 months old to start sleep training, but at 4 months, it's now time for Balin to learn how to self-soothe. He's slept with Robinson and I since birth and neither one of us can sleep with him thrashing in between us. The transition from our bed to his bassinet hasn't gone well. Every time we put him inside it he wakes up immediately or wakes up an hour later. (The fact that he's been waking up every two hours to nurse himself to sleep hasn't helped either. I'm not a human pacifier, kid!)

We talked about it and decided it was time for him to just cry it out.

I am an advocate for crying it out when it is done properly. I have never let either of my children cry and cry and never check on them until they vomit. To be honest, that turns my stomach. It's hard enough to hear my kid cry for comfort (although I usually spend some time outside and make Robinson soothe the baby while we're going through this process), but to let them just cry without soothing them seems so wrong.

The first night was simply awful. It took Balin about an hour and a half to fall asleep and then he woke up every couple of hours screaming. It finally ended at 6am when I heard him up. I was terrified about tonight because Robinson had a school board meeting and I didn't know if I could handle hearing his cries.

The boys took baths. I got Balin into his pajamas, read him a story, nursed him, sung him some songs, kissed him goodnight, then left, just waiting for the screaming to begin.

To my bewilderment, there was a five minute period of fussing and then...nothing. Balin had fallen asleep on his own, without help.

Of course, he woke up screaming an hour and a half later, but put himself back to sleep within 5 minutes of waking. So, so far, so good.

This could be the beginning of something beautiful. A decent night's sleep.

Blessed be.