Baking: My Survival Tool

While Pat's been gone I've done a lot of baking to pass the time. Too much, probably, considering the extremely small size of our freezer and that Niamh can't eat eggs. I think my pants are feeling a little bit snug. No wonder:

-chocolate pudding from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: fabulous! though perhaps making a double recipe was a mistake, even though we did have four extra people for dinner that night. There was an obscene amount of pudding.

-St. Louis gooey butter cake from Smitten Kitchen: delicious! Loved the top, but am not sure about the bottom. Wondering how the top would taste on top of the blondie recipe from Baking Illustrated. That might be too rich. Will have to try on Pat's next business trip, which is all too soon.

-whole wheat apple muffins from Smitten Kitchen: wonderful! I did have a problem with the batter curdling when I added in the yogurt. This has never happened to me before, so I didn't pay much attention to her warning. I think next time I'll follow the muffin mixing method from one of my Cook's Illustrated cookbooks. In spite of the curdling, the muffins were very, very good.



-thick chewy granola bars from Smitten Kitchen: (yes, I'm on a Smitten Kitchen kick at the moment. I don't see it ending in the foreseeable future either, because while writing this post coconut milk fudge has caught my eye.) really, really good! Next time I think I'll try adding a bit more almond butter to see if I can make the granola bars stick together just a little more.


-corn muffins with cheddar and bacon from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book: so-so. Could not taste the cheddar or the bacon. What was the point?

Several of the recipes called for corn syrup which can't be found in Switzerland, so I've been using wheat syrup as a substitute. Seems to work fine!

I wonder if Europe uses wheat the same way that America uses corn. I couldn't really find any info about it with a quick google search.

Random iPhone Photos From the Past Week

Pat's been in the states on business for the past ten days. The weather here was nice for the first couple of days, but then turned clear, windy, and cold. Very windy in fact, making the already cold temperature very cold. So other than the big kids going to school, there's been lots of time spent inside the apartment. The lone outside photo here was taken outside Ro's school. Not good when you have a serious case of spring fever! But at least Pat returns tomorrow. Hooray!

The Sea Serpent and Me

Every time we get to the last page of The Sea Serpent and Me Niamh spends the next five minutes thinking about the little girl in the story.

"Mama, I want to go to her house."
"Mama, where is her bed?"
"Mama, I wish I could play with her toys."



Sweet Niamh!

Back to Where it all Began

Things are finally certain enough that we can formally announce our upcoming move to Colorado, where Pat and I met when he was 20 and I was 17. Seems like ages ago! We will probably be moving in July. Perhaps a bit before, but not any later.

We are very sad not to be returning to Seattle, but glad that at least we'll be in Loveland where we already have good friends. This photo was taken on our last intentional visit to Colorado in 2005 (we accidentally ended up staying one night when returning to Seattle from a Switzerland preview trip and we missed a connecting flight in Denver). A lot has changed--John and Jen have another child, we have two more children, and my sister Amanda (not in the photo. I think she was at school in Tennessee?) and brother-in-law Mike have sadly moved to Oregon.

Rowan is very excited to be living at the bottom of the Rocky Mountains. A while back my mom gave us two books about the Rocky Mountains, Trails Above the Treeline and Who Pooped in the Park. We have been reading them both a lot lately, and Ro is eagerly anticipating all the animals he will see. Yesterday he pointed out to me a dinosaur in a different book that has a dew claw just like! some of the animals he's been reading about in the Rocky Mountain books.

Morning Walk 27.2.2010

All images were taken with the iPhone using the Hipstamatic app.

Masque de Carnaval

Niamh came home from preschool today wearing this mask, which is probably about the extent of the Carnival celebration here in Morges.

Sun, Rain, and a Little Shadow

The weather on Sunday was gorgeous, and though I knew it likely would not last long, I couldn't help but hope that it would.


Incidentally, I have no idea what these flowers (except that they're not. I just call them that) are. But I love them, and have been taking a lot of photos of them this past month.


...probably too many photos of the funny winter flowers, actually.

At any rate, we did get another day of sunshine, but today it has rained all day long. Muriel loved running errands with me in her stroller bubble while the big kids were at school. There was usually just a little hand peeking out.

But towards the end of our errand run she was getting much less tolerant of the bubble.

Once home she spent the rest of the morning following me from room to room with Niamh's little red stroller...

...and wishing that she could go outside to play.

Getting Closer to Spring

This morning started out dreary and rainy, but considerably warmer than it was a few days ago. Late in the afternoon the sun came out, and as it was still pretty warm (maybe 50 degrees F) I opened up the windows and balcony doors. When Rowan came home from school, instead of immediately asking for his daily TV allotment, everyone played outside; racing, having a picnic, and playing house "like Emily".



We are SO ready for Spring!!!

Further Proof That Art is Not My Thing

This is a window I walk by on the way to drop Rowan off at school.


Not sure what those things are on the window? Here's a closer look:

Yes, that is a cherry tomato, cut in half, and taped to the window. This window always has interesting displays up--for some reason, the only other one that's coming to mind at the moment was a few months back when the display was slices of pizza rotting away.

Anyway, I did visit the website pasted onto the bottom of the window (oloap), but do not feel any more enlightened.

Rome Pictures on Flickr

The rest of the pictures from our trip to Rome (and Pompeii!!) are up on Flickr now.

Where are the parks?

Where are the parks in Rome? The only playground I saw in Rome was behind Castel Sant'Angelo.

Mount Vesuvius

Complete with smoke, lava, and flaming rocks...

Italian Trains

We decided to go to Pompeii while in Rome. We followed Rick Steves' advice and took the 7:30 AM train from Rome's Termini station to Naples' Centrale station via Trenitalia. We purchased our tickets at the ticket window and ended up with 3 reserved seats (children 4 and under do not need a ticket). The coach we were in and those near us were very full, which meant that I had to stand in the aisle so Niamh could sit in my seat. It was only a two hour trip, so it wasn't too bad.

From Naples to Pompeii we took the Circumvesuviana narrow gauge train. Although we had read that this train was full of con artists and pickpockets, we met only nice and helpful individuals(and returned with all our possessions).

We missed the standard train in Naples on our return trip, so we ended up on the Eurostar Italia. It was mostly empty, faster, and significantly cleaner. It was more expensive, but the extra cost was well worth it when traveling with 3 kids. After our morning adventure we were going to purchase a ticket for Niamh on the way home. I told the person at the ticket window that both kids were 5, so he would sell us a tickets for Niamh and Rowan. He told me that both kids were 4 and wouldn't sell me a ticket. I am assuming he knew the train would be mostly empty and was trying to save us money.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jimmy's Pink Cookies from A Homemade Life (basically shortbread cookies generously spread with cherry flavored frosting), heart flower bouquets from maya*made, and lots of paper heart collages.

Hope everyone has or had a wonderful day filled with treats, love, and piles of glitter!

Rome!

I think that we had a successful trip to Rome and saw everything that we could reasonably expect to see during a 4.5 day visit with three kids. If we exclude the luggage arriving 30 hours after we did and Muriel vomiting in the taxi on the way to the airport, I would say we had a very good trip.

Our apartment was located at Via dei Coronari 222, which was within walking distance of most sights. The Colosseum was a bit of a walk for Niamh, especially in the rain, but she managed to do it. It might have helped that she knew there would be gelato at some point.

Our double stroller was about 5 cm too wide to go on the busses without disassembling, so we used taxis every day. Using a taxi was less expensive than I had expected and saved us quite a bit of time. It was nice having a taxi stand about 100 meters from the apartment. We didn't use any car seats, so I was a bit nervous about getting into an accident. That being said, the driving was not nearly as scary as I had expected it to be. There was only one time when I thought we would hit somebody and that was the pedestrian's fault.

If you have been following us in Facebook, you will know that we ate our (or maybe more than our) share of gelato. Here are a few of the places we wanted to visit. I'm not sure how many we actually sampled.

Rome Reading and Watching

We got a lot of books about Rome before our trip to Rome.
This is Rome by M. Sasek-this one was disappointing. We love This is Paris, but Sasek's Rome book is much drier and read more like a guide book than a picture book, for some reason. Even so, I'd say it's worth reading, but probably much better suited for older children.
Rome Antics by David Macaulay-thumbs up from kids and I. Pat wished it was more like his Castle and Cathedral books.
Madeline and the Cats of Rome by John Marciano-thumbs up
Vacation Under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne-thumbs up from Ro and I (Pat didn't read it, and Niamh wasn't interested)
Ancient Rome and Pompeii by Mary Pope Osborne and Natalie Pope Boyce--thumbs up from me, though the kids were not super interested.
The Roman Colosseum by Elizabeth Mann--Definitely meant for older kids, so I didn't even attempt this one with the kids, and haven't read it myself.

And then picked up some more while we were in Pompeii!
The Usborne Time Traveller: Rome & Romans-thumbs up
Romans by Katie Daynes-thumbs up
Pompeii by Karen Bally-thumbs up--Rowan adores this book. He was torn between this one and a similar book about Gladiators, but ultimately the people running in terror from the erupting volcano won out over men being forced to fight each other or animals to the death.

Here he is reading it in our apartment in Rome after we got back Tuesday evening. He's so sensitive about some things, it always surprises me when things I think would be scary seem to fascinate him rather than scare him. At any rate, I do think it's a good book. It's a fictionalized account of the time of the eruption through a several people's eyes, and then at the end there is a chapter on how Pompeii was rediscovered, the excavations, treasures that have been found at Pompeii, and a nice map of the city.

We all watched Rick Steve's video clips about Rome. Niamh wasn't so interested, but I think this definitely helped Rowan get more excited about the trip.

I meant to read The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters and When in Rome by Ngaio Marsh, and also watch Roman Holiday, but got sucked into some other books instead. Not to mention just general craziness limiting free time. I'll get to all three in the next week or so while Rome is still fresh in my mind!

Bringing a Small Taste of Rome to Morges

We made it back to Morges yesterday afternoon relatively unscathed. While we were in Rome it felt chilly, but the weather here makes Rome seem positively balmy! The three main things we ate in Rome were gelato, pizza, and hot chocolate. Once in a while we did throw in some apples or oranges. But I'm afraid that unless there were vegetables on the pizza (broccoli on pizza--delicious!), none were consumed. Anyway, I do not really have the equipment needed to adequately replicate gelato and pizza, but I figured I could certainly manage a cup or two of thick and creamy Italian hot chocolate. And the cold, windy weather in Morges seemed the perfect excuse for some hot chocolate experimentation. A quick Google search produced several promising recipes; this is the one I used as a base.

Unsurprisingly I had a bar or two of chocolate on hand. I buy the above chocolate in packs of ten or so when they go on sale at the supermarket and use them for baking, though I think they are intended for eating. For some reason chocolate specifically for baking is difficult to come by in Switzerland.

The main difference in Italian hot chocolate vs. good quality regular hot chocolate seems to be the thickness. I saw several methods used for thickening the drink--flour, arrowroot starch, and cornstarch all came up. I imagine potato starch would work pretty well too, but I used cornstarch.

My recipe ended up like this (only two changes from the recipe on bell' alimento):
-100 grams of 70% or higher chocolate, finely chopped
-1.5ish cups whole milk (I think I added a bit more).
-2 tablespoons sugar
-3 teaspoons cornstarch

I mixed the chocolate, sugar and cornstarch together in a small saucepan placed over medium-low heat. Once the chocolate was melted I slowly added the milk.

Or at least, that is ideally what would have happened. First of all, I only had 2.5% milk in the fridge, so used that instead of whole milk. Secondly, I mixed 2 teaspoons of cornstarch, the sugar, and chocolate together. Then whisked in the milk. Then decided that the hot chocolate wasn't thick enough (did I not cook the hot chocolate long enough? It was hot! Or maybe it was the lack of whole milk?) and added another teaspoon of cornstarch. The hot chocolate ended up with quite a few "bits" (as Rowan said) in it, which I think was cornstarch that I couldn't get blended. I'm assuming if I follow the aforementioned ideal method next time, I can avoid the bits. At any rate, the bits were easily strained out, and the hot chocolate ended up being delicious! Better, in fact, than most of the stuff we had in Rome, as we didn't often have the luxury of being picky about the establishments we stopped at for refreshments.

More on Rome to come!

NOTE: I made the hot chocolate again with with whole milk, and 3 teaspoons of cornstarch was too much. So if you're using whole milk try with just 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

Rome Perspectives

Rowan's:

It's been a long time since anyone has wanted to take my picture as much as Rowan does.

He (and Niamh too) has loved spotting all the SPQRs

Niamh's:

Niamh likes to take photos while walking. Sometimes they look like this.

But a couple hundred others look like this.

Mine:

Rowan and Niamh each received a camera for our trip to Rome, and they've been a big hit, as you can see (a brilliant idea from Dana). We've been here since Saturday and have a couple more days left before we go home. Too exhausted at the moment to write more, but there's sure to be much more to come!

Cloudy Morning on the Lake

Taken with the iPhone, processed using Pro HDR and CameraBag.