project runway: easy-to-make costume for a kid who loves airplanes

November 1st, 2009 by admin No comments »

run smallSew a black jack o’ lantern face on an orange T-shirt and pair it with orange sweatpants. That’s my idea of how much effort should go into making a costume. And it matched perfectly what Carter wanted the last two Halloweens.

When Carter said he wanted to be a prince or a knight for Halloween this year, I told him they both sounded complicated to make. His solution: “Tell me what you can make, and then I’ll tell you what I’ll be.”

Auntie Stacey is famous for her creativity when it comes to making costumes (Carter wore her son’s outgrown Max from the Wild Things costume one year), so she came over to brainstorm with us. She gets credit for this year’s winner: What better than an airport for the boy who loves planes? And what could be easier to make? Jeff taped the runway markings precisely on a black T-shirt and sweatpants. (Thank you, Honey!) For added security, I tacked down the tape with thread and sewed on a plush plane. Done!

Carter’s a happy boy posing with an added biplane in the photo, but earlier in the evening there was doubt he would go trick or treating and tears when he realized he could not join his neighbor friends. He started coughing Thursday and running a fever last night, and both were worse today. Around 6 pm, the poor lil guy said: “I’m too sick to go trick or treating. I’ll go tomorrow instead.”

Fortunately, the ibuprofen kicked in and he perked up just enough to walk up and down our block with me. I know it’s not a good thing to take a child with a fever out, but on Halloween, it seems far worse to keep a child home. He washed and sanitized his hands before we went, and stood back, didn’t touch anything, and had me put the candy in his bag. But at least he got to say “trick or treat” and “thank you” for both the candy and the compliments on his clever, custom-made costume.

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3 things to do before your house gets broken into

October 27th, 2009 by admin 1 comment »

Since having our house broken into, I’ve been evangelizing three things: back up computers offsite, buy replacement-value insurance, and make a household inventory. I hope your home is never broken into, but if it is, too, life will be a little easier if you’ve done these things.

We all know that we should back up our computers, but not all of us do it. I’ve been guilty of it myself more often than not. However, thanks to my husband, I had two backups, using Apple’s Time Capsule and CrashPlan’s family unlimited plan ($5/month)—so I didn’t lose data when my computer was stolen. However, I also got lucky. The people who broke into our house didn’t take the Time Capsule or the Apple Mini with my CrashPlan backup. If they had, I would have been screwed. (My Carbon Copy Cloner backup to an external hard drive, which Jeff gave me for backing up, was months out of date. When the software got wonky, I gave up in frustration. This is what I typically when I have computer problems, much to both our frustration.)

Now I’m preaching offsite backup. My Mozy online backup (2GB free) was incomplete and out of date. I was  also months behind in uploading my photos to SmugMug. (I pay for this service, which retains images at full size. If you want to join, the referral code qq2upFAqbRWVc will give you a $5 discount.) We’ve also bought some 1.5TB SATI drives, so we can take backups to work.

Something else I knew I was supposed to do and never bothered to do: Walk around the house with a digital camera or camcorder and take pictures of everything. Because I never got around to doing a household inventory, I doubt we’ll ever know everything that’s missing.

One thing I got right: We have replacment-value renters’ insurance and had a rider for my wedding and engagement rings (the main policy covers only $1,000 of jewelry) with USAA. If you have a parent who served in the military, you’re eligible to join this financial services organization, and I highly recommend that you do. We also have car insurance through USAA. Over the past eight years, I’ve been in two car accidents and our house has been broken into twice. Each time, USAA has been great. (Because neither accident was my fault, I’ve unfortunately had to deal with other insurance companies, which has not been as pleasant). USAA already paid me for my rings, but as I told the rep, I’ll gladly give the money back if my rings are recovered—about a one in a million chance.

Out of all of this, if you do nothing else, please, please back up your computer. Out of all the wonderful things my husband does for me, at the moment when I heard my laptop was gone, I was most grateful that getting me to back up my computer was one of them.

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Posted in My life

having our house broken into

October 26th, 2009 by admin 4 comments »

In broad daylight, on the corner of two busy streets, our house was broken into three weeks ago. The week after the break-in, the other executive editor in my department was mugged at gunpoint outside her house. This is my first blog since.

I wish I could report that I’ve been writing and baking, but instead I’ve been watching too much TV and eating too sugar, in the form of candy and readymade desserts, a la Marie Callendar. Yesterday, I went back to yoga class. Today, I made blueberry pancakes, rode my bike to the park with Carter, took a nap, and now I’m blogging after midnight, so it’s my first more normal weekend.

The break-in happened the first day back at work after vacation.  I knew it was bad news when Jeff called, rather than IM’ing, me: “We’re been robbed,” he said. “Again.” (A guy broke into our house eight years ago. He’s doing 25 to life, but that’s another story.)

Jeff came home for lunch and found a broken window and a ransacked house. The only lucky thing was timing. No one was home, Jeff didn’t walk in on them, and we had the entire afternoon (which we needed) to clean up, so when Carter came home, things looked as normal as possible. We told Carter simply that some bad guys took some of our stuff and the police came to help, and he’s mostly taking it in stride.

They used our tools to take down the big-screen TV, my kitchen stool to pick and chose from what few wine and alcohol bottles we had on top the refrigerator, and our duffle bags, still out from vacation, to cart stuff away.

The electronics, including three laptops and monitors, can be replaced. What can’t: my jewelry, including my engagement and wedding rings, which were home because they needed to be repaired.

I use my grandmother’s sewing cabinet as a bedside table, and I kept the jewelry I wear in the top two drawers, each about a foot square and a few inches deep. They didn’t just take the jewelry—they took the drawers—along with a jewelry box full of childhood keepsakes, like the charms I collected when my family went camping in Europe in 1975.

Aside from my wedding ring set with my grandmother’s diamond, no individual piece of jewelry had any monetary worth to speak of; it was all sentimental: my grandmother’s crystal beads, my mom’s gold heart locket my great aunt gave her for her first communion, the silver bangle bracelets my mom got in Acapulco on her honeymoon, the sapphire earrings Jeff gave me, the earrings our friend made me as a wedding present…most of my jewelry was gifts from friends and family, all with their own stories.

Their loss is also a story now. I just wish it weren’t mine.

More thoughts to come.

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blueberry buttermilk pancakes

October 4th, 2009 by admin 2 comments »

Back home and time for Sunday breakfast. Carter agreed he wanted pancakes and even requested that they be blueberry, but he also added, “I’ll just mix the wet and dry ingredients together.” Should I be proud of his baking vocabulary, off-put because he’s curtailing time with me making pancakes, or both?

To be fair, he had just started watching an episode of  Super Why, a PBS Kids show that he discovered on vacation, Jeff recorded for him, and Carter did pause long enough to mix the wet and dry ingredients together. (He rejected my plain metal whisk in favor of the red whisk; kitchen utensils in a favorite color can be  a powerful draw for a young baker.) Plus he knows to not overmix, which makes me proud and also makes for some light, fluffy pancakes.

All of us had seconds, then thirds! Carter had two at a time with cherry jam sandwiched in between.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

1/4 cup butter, melted, plus extra to grease pan, if needed
2 cups flour (I use 1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup white whole-wheat flour)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, preferably room temperature (for an egg-free version, substitute 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed and 6 tablespoons water)
2 cups buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Optional: Preheat oven to 200ºF. Put in a baking sheet to keep cooked pancakes warm.

Melt 1/4 cup butter and set aside to cool somewhat.

In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just to combine. The batter will be thick and lumpy. Do not overmix!

Heat a nonstick skillet over first low then medium heat until water sizzles when dropped on it. (If the pan needs to be greased, use the extra butter.) Spoon batter into the skillet using an ice-cream scoop (yields about 16 pancakes) or ladle. Sprinkle the tops with some of the blueberries. Cook for 2–3 minutes, or until the edges are starting to look dry, batter in the middle starts to bubble, and the bottoms are golden brown. Flip and cook another 2–3 minutes on the other side.

Serve or put in the preheated oven on the baking sheet to stay warm until all the pancakes are made. Serve with maple syrup warmed in the microwave, if desired.

Recipe updated January 3, 2012, originally adapted from Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes from The Cookworks, Food Network

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cupcake lessons

October 3rd, 2009 by admin No comments »

daddy's cupcakes

1) Overfilled cupcake batter bubble over and make a mess—as in, “What’s burning?”

2) To rescue a cupcake after its batter bakes over: Trim top to neaten. Cut the cupcake in half; sandwich cherry preserves in the middle. Serve upside down. Feed husband one. Eat two.

3) Sometimes Carter would rather watch TV with Daddy than bake with Mommy, even when baking is his idea!

Those are the lessons I learned when I made cupcakes—Carter’s idea—the night before Jeff’s birthday last month. (It’s Day 11 on the road: a couple of days of business meetings in New York followed by a New England/Canada cruise with the boys. Obviously, I’m way behind on blogging.)

I used a recipe for 48 mini cupcakes but baked them in standard-size muffin tins. When I came up with 11, I know the math and knew I should have redistributed the batter to make 12. But I was tired after a long day, and it was a lot easier to put water in the last cup. (Water in any empty cups helps protect a muffin pan in the oven.)

Most of the cupcakes came out fine (or good enough to camouflage with frosting). Carter helped frost those for the actual birthday celebration.

Carter did all the decorating. As you can see, we pretty much use the same birthday candles for everyone, whether Daddy or Pink Bear, and we’re out of red sprinkles.

I’m hanging out in Newark and don’t have the cupcake recipe with me. I’ll post it when I get home. The desserts on the cruise were beautiful and delicious—and abundant—but I’m also looking forward to getting back in the kitchen with Carter and baking our own.

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“guilty mommy” gets attention

September 19th, 2009 by admin 1 comment »

Yesterday’s blog about mommy guilt received the swiftest and most responses (on the blog and on my Facebook page) to anything that I’ve written so far. (I know, I know; baking brownies just doesn’t stir emotions in the same way.)

If you haven’t read the book I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids, I recommend that you do. It’s a super fast read, with lots of insight, humor, and advice packed in. The authors, Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile, start by fessing up to how they feel. See if any of these ring true:

-“As mothers, we put way too much pressure on ourselves.” [agree]
-“We have an unrealistic image of what a ‘good’ mom is.” [agree]
-“We secretly compare ourselves to other moms, who seem to have it all together.” [not so much—I admire and depend on lots of moms]
-We think we need to be perfect all the time. [agree]
-We feel alone. [sometimes]
-Our lives feel out of balance.” [sometimes]

Then the authors interviewed a lot of moms who (surprise!) feel the same way.

Spoiler alert! To summarize, for those who don’t read the book, the authors’ advice boils down to: realign your expectations of yourself as a parent. Consider if your expectations make sense and whether they make you and your family happy. Just doing this, they say, is the key to letting go of guilt and judgment—and to loving being a mom as much as you love your kids.

I think an equally important takeaway is their advice for moms to talk honestly to each other and to support each other.

I wouldn’t have survived motherhood thus far if it weren’t for other moms. It was thanks to my friends and sisters that I was eventually able to breastfeed Carter, after doctors and lactation consultants had long given up on me. (Carter was 9 weeks old the first day I was able to exclusively breastfeed him. He then nursed until he weaned himself at 2 1/2 years old.) When Carter was an infant, I would email my weekly new mommies’ group, which still gets together, in the middle of the night and get a response. Carter broke his leg when he was 3, and a mom I’d never met from the Palo Alto Menlo Park Parents’ Club, which has thousands of members, lent me her copy of Jessica’s X-Ray. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, I am filled with gratitude for all that other moms have done for me.

In the end, I don’t think “realigning expectations” will ever assuage all my guilt. But support from other moms? Now, that gets results.

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Yet another guilty mommy

September 18th, 2009 by admin 7 comments »

I just read I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood for book club. Authors Trisha Ashworth and Amy Nobile interviewed a lot of moms who feel a lot of guilt about a lot of things. It got me to thinking: What do I feel guilty about—aside from never putting together any scrapbooks for Carter?

I don’t feel guilty about working, even though I’m gone from 8 am to 6 pm every weekday. (I don’t know how stay-at-home moms do it—how they have the patience and physical stamina. The most exhausting time of my life was my 20-week maternity leave.) I think it’s good for Carter to see me do what I love. It doesn’t hurt, in his eyes, that my job means I can make a book about airplanes.

I don’t feel guilty about Carter going to daycare. He learns more at Lucy’s than I could ever teach him staying at home. (Did I mention he understands Russian?)

However, I do feel tremendously guilty if I do something, even take a class, when Carter is not in daycare and is awake: weekday mornings, weeknights between coming home and bedtime at 8 pm, and weekends, outside of naptime, until bedtime.

Last fall, I went on two business trips, four days to New York and three days to Florida—the first time and only times I’ve ever left Carter for more than a day.

I also feel guilty when I want to sleep in the morning, but Carter is awake—especially when he bounces in at 6 am, or even 7 am, and says, “Get up, Mommy! I want you to play with me.”

I should be grateful. For years, Carter got up between 5 and 5:30 am—every morning. And that was it. We were both awake. I’d read stacks and stacks of books. I’d take him for walks in our PJs. Sometimes, I got lucky: he’d nurse and then we’d both snooze.

However, I feel like if I were a truly Good Mother, I would spend and savor every possible hour—even when I’d rather be sleeping—with Carter.

Truth is: Carter doesn’t care that much if I’m gone, as long as it’s not an extensive absence and Jeff is around. Carter actually wants me to go to yoga class on Saturday morning because he likes to go to childcare at the Y (they have fun toys). He’s starting to decline to go on errands with me, even to Trader Joe’s (!), to stay home and play. Sometimes, he’d rather watch TV than bake with me (double ouch). If I leave to go somewhere, I get a “ba-bye” for the most part.

Yet. I feel guilty. Welcome to modern motherhood. According to the book, I’m in good company.

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beer-spiked chocolate cupcakes

September 14th, 2009 by admin No comments »

Weeks ago, I signed up to make a dessert for our block party. It was today, but had completely slipped my mind until I got a reminder email around noon. Carter wanted to make cupcakes, which aside from the Linzer cupcakes, I haven’t made very often, so I went in search of a foolproof recipe.

I was reading through cookbooks and searching online, when I came across a five-star recipe on the Food Network site with an intriguing addition: a bottle of Guinness! On one hand, what doesn’t taste better with Guinness? On the other, I had never contemplated putting a bottle of beer in chocolate cupcakes. I don’t know why it works, but it does. (The alcohol cooks off during the baking process, so these are kid safe.)

Topping chocolate cupcakes off with cream cheese frosting also never hurts. Today, that’s what Carter was most interested in because he was making frosting for the first time. He loves to turn the crank on the sifter and hold the electric hand mixer by himself. He also insisted on frosting the cupcakes, which he did very carefully and deliberately, proving that baking is good for helping kids focus. (He had me “finish” them with a little smoothing.) And, of course, in the end, with cupcakes, it’s all about the sprinkles, lots and lots of sprinkles.

Note: Having the ingredients at room temperature helps keep the butter from clumping. If you’re short on time, putting the eggs and the bottle of beer in bowls of warm water speeds up the process.

Beer-Spiked Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 pinches salt
1 1/2 cups (1 12-ounce bottle) stout beer, such as Guinness, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease or place 24 paper liners in muffin tins.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another mixing bowl, combine the beer, butter, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the sour cream until the mixture is thoroughly combined. In three separate parts, add the dry ingredients, blending well after each addition.

Pour the batter into the muffin tins, dividing equally to make 24 cupcakes.

Bake for 12 minutes and then rotate the pans. Bake another 12 minutes, or until risen, nicely domed, and set in the middle but still soft and tender. Cool in pans on wire rack.

Adapted from Chocolate Stout Cupcakes, Dave Liedberman (Food Network)

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 cup powdered sugar
8 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla. Blend until smooth.

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daycare baking project

September 12th, 2009 by admin 1 comment »

Today, at daycare, the kids “made” cinnamon rolls—put premade dough on baking sheets, which Lucy baked and cooled during gym class. Afterward, the kids frosted and decorated them with raisins and candy. They sampled their creations, and each brought one home. A hands-on baking project. Yet another reason for me to love Carter’s daycare and be grateful that the NASA daycare center stiffed us.

When I was pregnant, Jeff and I had put our names on the waiting list for NASA’s onsite daycare center. The director assured us that it wouldn’t be a problem getting in. But it was. Which I found out at the end of my maternity leave when I called to set up Carter’s start date. Then I found out how hard it is to find daycare with an open infant spot. I was on my way to put a deposit down at an expensive, inconvenient center, because it was the best option I had found, when I stopped to visit one last home provider. Thank goodness. Carter has now been going to Lucy’s for over four years—and learning more than I ever could have taught him had I stayed home. (NASA finally offered us a slot when Carter was 18 months old. We declined.)

After dinner, Carter nibbled on his cinnamon roll and then said, “Mommy, You can have the rest.” It was nice of him to share, but I could taste why. The mish-mash of sweet decorations looked better together than they tasted. So if you try decorating cinnamon rolls with your kids, which is a great easy, creative, and tactile project, keep in mind it’s about the process, not the end result. (At least that’s what I told Jeff when he caught me being a bad mommy and surreptitiously throwing out the remains.)

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handheld mixer, check

September 8th, 2009 by admin 3 comments »

hand-held mixer debutIMG_0962Another great banana bread recipe—and Carter’s first solo spin with a handheld electric mixer. Just like Widget on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, who, Carter tells me, invented the Blenderoma 3000 to help Wubbzy make doodleberry pie. (Once again, I must ask myself if my child watches too much TV. At least, Widget is a positive female character who likes to invent and build things.) Carter was so excited about using the mixer that he yelled for Daddy, to “come quick.” Then he showed Jeff how to use the mixer and let him take a turn. 

I chose this Williams-Sonoma banana bread recipe for the whole-wheat flour and the fact that once mashed, the very ripe bananas my neighbor gave me equalled 1 cup. Carter and I have made similar recipes, like the  Ba-Ba banana bread and Nandini’s mini banana muffins, that employ the creaming method, where you blend together room-temperature butter and sugar. However, Carter usually exits from the kitchen when I use either the stand or the handheld mixer because he doesn’t like the noise. This is the first time Carter asked to do it himself—and then went it alone using the handheld mixer. He was proud of himself, and, needless to say, I was proud of him, too. (Tip: use a mixing bowl with a nonslip bottom to keep the bowl secure on the counter.)

We made four loaves in mini loaf pans. I don’t know if it’s the method or the stick of butter and cup of sugar (I’ll try less next time), but this is some good banana bread.

Whole-Wheat Banana Bread

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup very ripe bananas, mashed, (3 small or 2 large)
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a standard loaf pan or four mini loaf pans.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until blended—a handheld electric mixer is helpful for this step. Beat in the banana, then the eggs, one as a time, until completely mixed.

Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture and gently blend by hand just until combined (do not overmix!).

Spread the batter in the loaf pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 55–60 minutes for a standard loaf pan or about 30–35 minutes for mini loaf pans. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack or serve warm.

Adapted from Muffins & Quick Breads (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library)

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