I Baked Madeleines

Last year, I helped a co-worker with a project on my own time. As a thank you, he gave me a King Arthur Flour gift certificate. With that gift certificate, I bought myself a Madeleine pan... something I never would have bought had I not been using "free money" because it is a uni-tasker. That said, free money = madeleine pan in this case!

I made the batter using this recipe (NOTE: I doubled it and wound up with almost 50 cookies) and could not have been happier with the results! The two changes I made were: (1) I used lemon zest instead of orange zest because that is what I had on hand and (2) I melted a little butter and brushed the pan wells with it instead of using non-stick spray. I let the batter sit in the fridge overnight (to ensure they had the traditional hump) and baked 'em this morning. OH... my ... goodness!

Because I'm going for Mom of the Year, I let the kids try them this morning and both kids gave the Madeleines their enthusiastic approval ... and then asked me if they could have another one for their lunches. Oh... OK! :)

Baking with Beth's Madeleine Recipe

• 3 eggs
• 2/3 c sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp orange zest (in my case, zest of 1 lemon)
• 1 c flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 Tbsp butter (melted)
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar

1. Beat eggs with sugar until pale yellow. Add zest.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients. Add to the egg mixture gently, until just combined. Then add melted butter.
3. Refrigerate the batter at least 1 hour! Or overnight. This is really critical for getting the "hump" of a Madeleine, the traditional mark of this classic French cookie. 
4. Preheat oven to 350.
5. Lightly coat a non-stick Madeleine pan with baking spray using this technique. Spray the baking spray into a small bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly grease each well. (NOTE: I used melted butter instead.)
6. Spoon 1 Tbsp of batter into the center of the well and don't touch it. It will spread out by itself and keep a more uniform shape that way.
7. Bake 7-8 minutes (NOTE: Mine needed 8-9) until slightly golden around the edges and the centers look set and a slight hump has appeared. Allow to cool slightly and then remove from the tin and allow to cool.
8. Once cooled completely, dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Valentine's Day 2019 Recap

FULL DISCLOSURE: We don't "do" Valentine's Day. It's a Hallmark holiday and one that I don't put much weight behind. In recently heard a radio segment that talked about how much people (on average) spend on Valentine's Day gifts. I almost crashed my car at the shock of how much people (again, on average) spend and from laughing at the whole (expensive) ordeal.

That said, Eric and I exchange cards (just like we do on our anniversary) and wish each other a happy Valentine's Day. We also give the kids cards to wish them a good day and to have a fun avenue for reminding them of our love for them. Easy ... done. As an added bonus, the kids got heart glasses with their cards (thanks, dollar store!) Who has two thumbs and is a fun mom? THIS gal!!!

The reason I really like Valentine's Day is the cookies. I LOVE making Valentine's Day cookies. This year, I was in a state of panic not knowing if the kids' class parties would actually occur (thanks to Snowmagedden 2019) but they did! Woo hoo! I baked the cookies Tuesday night and decorated them Wednesday night (but that point, we had gotten word that the kids would haves school on the 14th.) So, I pulled out my decorating supplies and went to work!

The kids decorated a few cookies, too, and are really getting a hang of some decorating techniques! Both kids made rather advanced decorating choices (especially considering Conor's age and Annika's full-arm cast!), including hearts, wreaths of hearts, and multi-color hearts. Way to go, kiddos!

These are four of my favorites from this year

5th grade's cookies platter

3rd grade's cookie platter

My monster Valentine's Day craft was this rag heart. I made it for my mom's door at her care facility. (The benefit of being snowed in... there was plenty of time to tie about a million knots to make this wreath!) Again, due to the snow, I wasn't sure if it would get to her on time, but due to her unexpected fall and ER trip on Wednesday, I got it to her on time. I think we'll leave it up even after the Valentine's Day decorations come down ... she loves the color red and it looks darn cute on her door!

Annika's new cast

On Monday, aka mid-Snowmagedden, Annika and I ventured out into the cold, snowy world for her scheduled appointment at Children's. Fortunately, Eric worked from home that day, so we took his car  to the appointment (all wheel drive for the win). Driving was a piece of cake (mmmm.... cake!) because we were able to stick to the plowed roads used by the buses on their emergency routes.

Annika could hardly wait to get the cast swapped out... the original one was a plaster cast under a fiberglass cast. So bulky! So heavy! (And, let's face it .... so smelly!)

Annika giggled through the removal process and was fascinated by the various layers of the cast. (I love how inquisitive our girls is!) The clinician gave Annika's arm a nice sponge bath using baby wipes to help remove some of the dead skin and ripeness, shall we say.

Annika picked a green cast for her second go-around, which she was thrilled to report gave her more finger freedom and was MUCH lighter. (This newfound freedom left her feeling more sore than she'd been in a few weeks... not a surprise, but still a good reminder that she's still healing and needs to be careful.)

We don't have to go back for four weeks. (WOO HOO!) That upcoming appointment *should* be when she can get out of a cast and into a brace. Fingers crossed!

Goodbye, old cast

Ready for the saw

It tickles!

New cast ready for signatures!

Snowmageddon 2019

Rarely do I adopt the media trend of naming storms/weather events with catchy names. This time, I have to admit, that it really fits the situation to call our recent set of snow storms (4 in a week!) a true snowmagedden.

It all started about a week and a half ago with the first storm that left us with 4-ish inches of snow on the ground. Pretty. Easy. Snow day. No biggie. Fast forward over the next week, we got enough snow over the next few days to break the snow record for February... and then we got 3 more inches of snow! We are such overachievers here!!!! We wound up with 14" of snow on our deck. Hello!!!

The kids, being typical "the snow doesn't stay long in Seattle" kids wanted to take full advantage of every moment in the snow. We had to practically bribe them to come inside when all of this started. By the end of it, they barely noticed the piles of snow outside because it had become old hat.

Last week, they either had no school. late starts, or early dismissal due to the weather. This week, they haven't had any school until today (Thursday) and tomorrow was supposed to be a teacher in-service day, but the school will have classes instead to help get another day in the books. Eric and I were really mean parents who made them read and accomplish something each day ... we are such meanies!

One of the multi-day projects for the kids was their snow fort on our deck. It kept them busy for hours upon hours and they worked together really well. Once our snow shovel arrived (before that, they were using my little gardening spades), their progress went into high gear!  By the end, it reminded me more of Mt. St. Helens after it blew and Eric decided it was Crater Lake.

Falling snow

Our rhodies kept getting weighed down by the snow

Snowy deck

Our deck steps ... incognito 

Snow kids

SO MUCH SNOW

Conor making a snow angel

Starting their fort project

Fort progress

Conor and his snow man

 

Snow total before the last storm brought in 3" more

Hello, my pretty!

Catching snowflakes on her tongue

More fort progress

Cold smiles

Big tools for big jobs

We are now officially in the sloppy thawing phase. When the snow arrived, we watched our neighbor's roof slowly disappear under the snow; now we're watching its slow reappearing act. At night, we're still dropping below freezing, so there's lots of ice to contend with, but less each day. We, unlike many people in the area, never lost power, which we are very grateful for. It flickered a few times, but that was the extent of it. I can't help but wonder if my tulips that started to peek their noses out of the dirt before the snow arrived will be stunted by all of this craziness .... only time will tell!

February Snow

I've said a few times this winter that I doubted we'd get any snow. If we don't see a single flake by the end of January, we typically don't see snow. I was SO confident in this theory that I planted pansies in our front yard last week. Oh what a fool I was!

See my pretty flowers? So springy!!

Last weekend, we got hit with a snow storm that dropped about 4 1/2 inches of snow in our yard and covered my pretty pansies so there was nothing to see by white mounts. The temps plummeted, causing icy road conditions and the snow to remain. We also got some decent winds that brought down tree branches and limbs.

School was cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, so the kids were basically over the moon. (Annika's enthusiasm was diminished when she came to the realization ... with our "mean parent" help ... that playing in the snow at the neighbor's house with a broken arm wasn't the best idea. She wound up being invited to her friend Maddy's house Monday afternoon to watch a movie and drink hot cocoa, so all was right again with the world. Conor spent a few hours at the neighbor's house bopping between playing in the snow and playing Monopoly inside. He loved having Valeria to himself and it sounds like they had a fabulous time together.)

Eric and I worked from home on Monday. I worked from home on Tuesday, too, while he braved the roads to show his face at the office; fortunately, he made it back and forth without incident (whew!).

The kids had a 2-hour delay Wed and Thur.... the question is what will Friday bring? If you as a weather forecaster, MORE SNOW! If the forecasts are right, we're in for a real doozy of a storm. (And if the lines at the grocery store last night were any indication, people were paying attention to the predictions.) Stay tuned!

Throwback Thursday: 60s Style

Last month during Catholic Schools Week, each day consisted of a different dress-up opportunity. The Thursday of CSW was "throwback day" and the kids could pick an outfit based on a specific decade. I "helped" the kids pick the 60s knowing it would be easy (duh!) and convenient to work Annika's cast into her outfit.

We had tie dye coming out of our ears with this one, but I think everyone will agree that they looked pretty darned adorable! Groooooovy, man!