Zhinka dinka doo

Homemade morning

For some reason, last night I decided that this morning we would have fresh bread and fresh butter. So I mixed together a batch of No-Knead Bread 2.0 from the Cook's Illustrated February 2008 issue (it differs slightly from the NYT no-knead bread by the addition of vinegar and beer, plus a minimal 15-second kneading) and put it into the water-heater closet to do its thing last night.

This morning as I stumbled out of bed and got ready to go on my morning walk, I remembered that I was supposed to do something, something, what was it? Aha, the bread! I did the 15-second knead, put it to rise again into the skillet, then went on my too-cold walk. After an hour in the oven, I had the most beautiful loaf of bread I have ever made. It was smaller and denser than the normal no-knead bread, but after restraining myself for a LONG time (10 minutes) I cut into the loaf to find a nice, not-too-dense structure. And yes, the taste of this bread is much more complex than the original no-knead recipe. "Complex" doesn't sound too descriptive. Let's just call it yummy.

While the bread was baking, I poured a half-pint of heavy cream into a canning jar and handed it to Max, who then quickly passed it off to me, who then passed it off to dad. It took about 30 minutes among the three of us, and was easy/really hard/easy. The beginning and end stages were easy because there was enough liquid to move things around. The middle stage--the whipped cream stage--was quite difficult because all it wanted to do was to stick to the sides of the jar, so the normal shaking motions didn't achieve much. We had to shake harder, and my elbows are still recalling that stage. The resulting butter, seen in the little bowl in the first picture, is good, but not as flavorful as I had imagined it would be. Still, I have no problems in eating this slightly less flavorful butter:

Our experiences this morning taught me that (1) there is a point to a butter churn, I can only assume it is easier to use than that middle stage with the jar and (2) doing things the pioneer way is an exercise program in itself, no gym membership required.

6-year-old ingenuity

And 5-year-old ingenuity. Max's friend is over for a playdate this afternoon, and they decided they wanted to build a snowman. But the snow here is drier than you would believe snow could be, and even more so after it's been sitting around sublimating for a few weeks as it has in our neck of the woods. I was surprised to get a request for a carrot nose, wondering how they could possibly make a snowman out of the baby powder that's covering the back yard. I went outside to see, and this is what I found:

They had stomped a snowman out of the untouched snow. And here they are making it snow again:

Kid presents: aprons

For presents to Max's friends this year, I made a bunch of these smockets, adorable little aprons/smocks that tie at the shoulder. They're reversible, so I paired two fun fabrics together. And packaged them with a copy of a fairy cookbook and a mini bundt pan or other small baking item.

First up is Max's, in a deep blue/purple batik (he calls it "tie-tie", but I didn't think it necessary to explain the difference between tie dye and batik) with multi-dots on green for the reverse. A little patchwork pocket on each side combines the two fabrics. I found that the patchwork pocket took me twice as long as sewing the smocket, so I made an executive decision (in the interest of getting sleep) to not have pockets on the rest of these.

Next up is the pink/green number for Max's friend Sage. I love the pink starbursts on this one!

Max likes his, but I think these might be a bit too feminine for boys, the swing of them really looks like a dress. I was thinking they would be pretty much unisex, but maybe not. Perhaps if I adjust the pattern to be less swingy, it might be more acceptable to boys. Not that there's anything wrong with swingy clothing on boys, but some are sensitive about it.

Bird surprises

These are the presents that Max gave his teachers. The brilliant blue bird's nests were finger-knit by Max out of luscious Navajo churro wool (a bit coarse for clothing, but wonderful for these nests). I bought this yarn this summer at the farmer's market, I believe it was locally spun and dyed. After Max knit the long rectangle, we spiralled it into a nest shape and then tacked it so it would stay.

The surprises found in these nests are (left) a wonderful NOM from Aimee's lovely shop and (right) wooden acorns and eggs from this shop (after I read about it at Amanda's). We packaged them up in little origami boxes, they looked very nice.

Max also did a gift exchange at school, but for some reason I forgot to take a picture of his finished gift before sending it off. Darn. But he's making a second for himself, so I've got a second chance to get a picture.

And to the rescue comes the cucumber of steel

LarryBoy amigurumi, finished in time for Christmas! I started it before Max's birthday (October), thinking it would be a quick crochet and I could have it done in time for his birthday. Ha!

Max has been a LarryBoy fan(atic) for some time now, having been introduced by a friend in his preschool. As superheroes go, LarryBoy is ok (at least for the first 20 viewings of the DVDs). My brilliant plan was to use a LarryBoy action figure to get Max to use his tree house for more independent creative play. When we had an older kid over one day, I noticed that he (the older kid) was using the tree house furniture as spaceships and other superhero-type vehicles. Why not add LarryBoy? Using a TV character to inspire independent, creative play? Is that very Waldorf? Well, we'll see. It may not work.

I needed a correctly scaled LarryBoy for my plan to work. You can buy LB action figures, but they're too big. I've seen lots of amigurumi around, I even completed one of my own, so why not? And Myra makes it look so easy. Let me tell you though, coming up with the correct shape was not easy for me, I think I need more experience. I spent one night, two episodes of Stargate Atlantis, trying to get the @#*$&^ plungers to look approximately correct. They're half an inch across, I don't know why it took me so long.

But he's done, and I got a photo for the blog, so I'm happy now. A nice plain green Larry. And his superhero outfit to turn him into LarryBoy. Purple suit with pink plungers and a multi-colored, fluttery cape. I'm off to wrap LB now.

Gather

(whispering) At the risk of bringing some bad juju toward me, I'm quietly mentioning that I'm starting to get out from under all the things that need to be done in December. So I'm catching up on posting what I did in November. I'm not caught up, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I don't think it's a train.

Here's my ATC for November's creativemompodcast ATC swap, themed "gather". I was flipping through my iPhotos and noticed this lantern picture from Max's lantern walk. I thought it fit the theme well: a gathering of lanterns as well as a gathering of children, parents, families, community.

I applied some filters in Photoshop to make it look more hand-drawn, and then printed. And I was actually on time this month!

Tutorial: Golden walnut necklace with magic bell

Many thanks to everyone for your walnut suggestions. They worked great! Here's the final result, with a tutorial if you'd like to make your own.

These golden necklaces are to be the gifts left by St. Nicholas after he visits my son's classroom and collects the hay and carrots the children have left for his white horse. They're really pretty and very easy to make (although it does take a bit of time), so I've written up a tutorial. These would make wonderful gifts if you need to make something small for everyone in the class, or as birthday party favors. Or, they could be special presents left by St. Nicholas.

Supplies
--------

Walnuts, about twice as many as you intend to have necklaces at the end
Small bells
Red ribbon
Gold spray paint
Hot glue gun with glue sticks
(Mini) muffin pan or ice cube tray

Prepare the walnuts
-------------------

I'm going to put this up top since it's important not to miss it. You need to keep your walnut halves together, so after each successful walnut shucking, put the two halves together into one slot in a mini (or maxi) muffin pan or an ice cube tray. You don't want them to get mixed up, if you do, you have a nice what-matches-what puzzle on your hands.

OK, continuing.

If your walnuts are old, you're good to go. I had some that were about a year old, they worked wonderfully. I'm not exactly sure how old is old enough, so you could try a few and decide whether you need to artifically age your walnuts first. Insert a knife or awl or other pointed instrument (I used a letter opener) into the eye at the top and twist gently. The walnut should begin to crack along the side seams. Don't try to pop your walnut apart all at once (although my year-old walnuts happily did this), instead work the knife down along a side seam and twist a little bit, keep going around until the two halves are separated.

If your two halves separate along the side seams, you're good. If the break instead randomly climbs around the middle of the shell (and does this repeatedly for a few more attempts), then you need to age your walnuts.

To age your walnuts, heat your oven to 225F, put the walnuts on a cookie sheet and bake them for about an hour. Take them out of the oven, let them cool, then try to open them again. They should be much easier to open this time. Still the success rate isn't 100%, something like 50-75% is more reasonable. That's why you started with extra walnuts.

As you open each walnut, scrape out the meat and any other fibrous matter from the inside of the walnt and then remember to put the two halves together into a muffin tin slot.

Spray paint the walnut halves
-----------------------------

Lay paper outside, put your walnut shell halves onto the paper (in such a way that you'll remember which half goes with which half), and then spray them according to the directions on your spray paint can. I gave mine a light initial coat (the brand printing was still a bit visible through it), waited half an hour, then spray painted again.

Let walnuts dry (see spray paint for how long). I let mine dry for 24 hours.

String the bells
----------------

Cut red ribbon to an appropriate length for your child. I used 30-inch long pieces for 6-year-olds. Thread the ribbon through the bell, tie off the ends (or you can do a double fisherman to make the ribbon length adjustable).

Glue the bells into the walnut shells
-------------------------------------

Heat up your glue gun and get everything ready, this part goes fast. Take two walnut halves and test fit them together so you'll know if there are any issues (like "I need to turn it this way to get the two halves to line up right"). Keep one in your left hand (for righties) and put the other half down (I found that round-side up worked best for me). Take one bell-on-a-ribbon, but the bell inside the walnut shell, and lay the ribbon so it drapes to the outside of the walnut, over the eye.

Now, here's the quick part. Pipe glue around the edge of the walnut with the glue gun, then quickly pick up the other shell half and fit it together. Maybe it was the glue I was using, or the temperature of the house, but I found that I had very little time to do this before the glue would harden. And I certainly didn't have time to reposition the walnut halves once they were stuck together.

(There's glue around the walnut edge, can you see that in this little picture?)

Now you're done! String around the neck of your favorite child, or leave out as a present from St. Nick.