A Very Crafty Holiday: an overview

I'm a big fan of TV. Like, huge. (Picture me saying that as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.) Before The Kid came along--and when he's not home--I have the TV on non-stop. It's my background noise when I'm doing whatever it is that I'm occupied with; there are only a handful of shows I actually sit and watch.

I do try to stem my couch potato impulses when I'm hanging out with The Kid, and not have the both of us posted in front of the TV all the time. To be honest, he probably watches a total of two hours a day...don't judge. :P

Not defaulting to turning on the TV was much easier when I worked outside of the house. Spending a full day with The Kid was an event, and it was treated as such. When you only get two full days a week together, why would you spend it watching TV? But now, I have to make a concerted effort to come up with fun and nourishing activities. And it turns out, I love doing crafts with my kid! (I probably could have told you that before, but now it's confirmed.) "Becoming more comfortable with arts and crafts" was on my resolution list a few years ago, when I realized that to effectively teach Creative Drama to young kids, I was going to have to give them art projects. I think I've been pretty successful on that end!

Here's a roundup of some of the crafts The Kid and I have done together for the holidays...

Glued circles and rectangles to a piece of blue paper to make snowmen!
(I can't believe it hasn't really snowed in A2 yet! Did I just jinx us??)

Made and decorated gingerbread cookies!
(Cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated; amazing sugar frosting recipe from The Kitchn.)

The old preschool stand-by: dreidel suncatchers!
(Basis for this activity from The Artful Parent; I used watered-down glue instead of liquid starch,
because my grocery store didn't stock the starch. I also put the wax paper inside a dreidel cut-out.
Because Hanukkah.)

I went into The Kid's class to teach them about Hanukkah. Guess what I did with them!

We made peppermint marshmallows! They. Were. Excellent. And somehow, we still have some.
(Recipe from A Beautiful Mess.)

We made some ornaments for our tree. Meet Santa and Jewish Guy!
(Basis for this activity from Red Ted Art. I looped some embroidery floss through Santa's cap to make an ornament.
Jewish Guy used pretty much the same technique, using blue paint for his body, and a small felt circle yarmulke.)

And we made a handprint snowman ornament using a kit made by a parent in the 4s class at The Kid's school!

Whew! It's been an artful month! I think doing art with The Kid is so much fun. It allowed us to explore both of the winter holidays we celebrate in our family in a tactile way. Springtime crafts soon?

Scrumptious Sunday*: A Recipe of One's Own

For the last few weeks, I've been trying weekly meal planning. It's a topic for another post, but it's been going a long way in saving both grocery shopping money and sanity.

This week, I thumbed through a cookbook I got from the library, trying to find a good cold-weather recipe...and found a whole damn bunch of them! The Food52 Cookbook is organized seasonally, and so I had no shortage of options**. But since I'm super-into squash right now, I went for their "best couscous dish," Fregola Sarda with Caramelized Squash and Charmoula.

Before a couple of weeks ago, I had never cut a squash open before. I had, you know, carved Jack o' Lanterns, but an actual squash intimidated the hell out of me. I didn't know how to peel one, how to cut one, how to make sure all of the seeds were done away with, without getting my hands all goopy. But I loved the warm taste, the smell in the kitchen while one was cooking...a squash is late autumn and winter to me. And if all one has to do is cut one up, throw it in the oven with some oil and salt, and let it be for a while to make a super-tasty meal? OK, I decided, if I'm working on getting comfortable in the kitchen, this was something I needed to learn how to do. (Thanks to The Kitchn for a great squash tutorial!)

And so after my first try with butternut squash two weeks ago, and making Pumpkin Butter with The Kid last week (also Food52), this recipe sounded like an absolute winner. It's getting cold and dreary here in MI, and some squash was just what my kitchen needed.

But I also had a couple of changes I needed to make for various reasons: grocery availability, family dietary needs, and so on. And so, since I'm trying to work on being zen in the kitchen, I did what I needed to do and came out with a damn good dinner that made everyone around the table happy. Seriously, The Kid gobbled it down, even though the one part of the dish he helped me make was the one thing that didn't wind up on his plate.

It's no Fregola Sarda, but it was awesome. Recipe after the jump. (Don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients. There's a lot of stuff, but not a whole lot of work involved at all.)

Tipple Tuesday: It's Cold Out There, but It's Warm in Here

Man, it's cold out there! We had a beautiful snowy day yesterday, and as I type this, it's nine degrees outside. Maybe that's Mother Nature's way of preparing us for the move to Ann Arbor...'Cause the world and its weather totally revolves around me.

We spent a chunk of the afternoon yesterday playing Snow Plow: The Kid brought his snowplow, dump truck, and front loader outside and proceeded to plow our building's turnabout. Such is the life of a city kid, and he had a blast! Even though it was super-fun, I can't help but wait until we have a green space of our own to build snowmen, make angels, and throw snowballs.

We have a couple of parks within walking distance, but a few of the sidewalks are nearly impossible after a snowstorm, especially with a stroller. I don't know whose job it is to shovel, but whomever it is, they're not pulling their weight; after the last snow, I remarked that it was National Stay at Home if You Use a Stroller or Wheelchair Day. Urban living definitely has its upsides (I can see Gymboree from our window, and we have a choice of walking to restaurants of varying ethnicities and quality every night) but I want a garden--in which The Kid wants to plant broccoli, carrots, and mashed potatoes--and Jake wants nothing more than to grill.

But that's warm weather stuff, and I digress.

After The Kid's bedtime, it was time for a warming grownup drink! I'd been toying around with heated drinks for a while, and this one really hit the spot. I hope you enjoy it.

Recipe for The Apple Cheek after the jump!

Food Friday: Cold Comfort (Food)

I heard on the radio this morning that we in the Mid-Atlantic are "supposed" to be in the 50s this time of year. I don't know, I grew up 45 minutes from here, and I always think of February as one of the coldest months. For me and my newfound love of the kitchen, that means making warming comfort food. And what better comfort food than soup? Soup made with root vegetables.

I love the hell out of my immersion blender. Okay, to be fair, I got the blender for Jake for his birthday a few years ago. But I use it a lot too. I love the way it makes a chunky soup smooth in just minutes. I love that I don't have to worry about pouring hot liquid into my blender, because I just know I'd end up with scalding skin. I don't love the cramps it gives my hand, but it's a small price to pay for a smooth soup.

I also love the hell out of the How to Cook Everything app. Mark Bittman is a genius, and to have an amazing cookbook literally at my fingertips, where I can export a shopping list and refer to how-tos without having to flip pages is a huge bonus. (Fellow bookworms, don't throw tomatoes at me: I have plenty of real-and-true cookbooks, too!) And so here's what I did with his recipe for Potato-Leek Soup. I hope it warms your home as much as it did mine.

(Recipe after the jump.)