A Tiny Little Book Review

I love history and in my college days, I was actually a history major for a year and a half.  Until I realized there was nothing I could do with a history major.  Ah well...

Recently when I was at daughter Ann's house, I noticed a library book on an end table.  A book on the Romanov family of Russia.  The story of the last Tsar and his family has always intrigued me, possibly because my great grandmother on my mom's side was Russian. Apparently Ann had an interest, too.

A few days later Ann mentioned the book and offered to loan it to me when she was finished with it. I accepted her offer and read it with great interest.  Turns out it's written for a young adult audience, but it is well-researched and very readable.  There are pictures and interspersed among the chapters are diary entries or remembrances by Russian peasants of the same era. It's fascinating reading if you, too, are interested in history and this time period. 

A Busy Month

Well hello there!  Apparently I've been in another non-wordy mood, but I'm going to attempt to do a little catching up.

It's been a family month as we've attended several events featuring family members.  Our littlest one, Daniel, graduated from his first year of preschool May 13 and we were entertained by a musical about the solar system.  Such a roomful of cuties!  And here's our little man:

Daniel's Preschool Graduation

We are so thankful we can attend so many events our grandchildren are a part of.  Cameron and Keaton's school put on a musical in which Keaton took part, and a Readers' Theater in which Cameron took part. We enjoyed both!

On Saturday of Mother's Day weekend we drove to my parents' house to celebrate Dad's 92nd birthday (which had been that Monday) and Mother's Day with them. Bruder Bear was up and it was such a fun day of visiting and eating.  I made a poor man's cake and a potato salad and Bruder Bear grilled pork chops.  We made a good team!  

Last weekend was spent attending the wedding of Bruder Bear's younger daughter, Kirsten.  We drove Mom and Dad over and had a great time at the rehearsal dinner Friday night at Kirsten's house in the Tri-Cities and then on Saturday afternoon drove to a beautiful winery outside of Walla Walla where we watched and as Kirsten and Tim were married.  Such a special time with family!

Eric, Keaton, Ann, Daniel and Cameron

Kirsten and Tim with Mom and Dad

The newlyweds!

My niece Jennifer and her family were up from Texas for the wedding and on Monday she and her two little boys drove to my parent's house to spend a few days (her husband, Greg, had had to fly back to work on Sunday). Wednesday was spent here and it gave Ann and me a little more time to become acquainted with baby James and for Grant and Daniel to get to play.  

Grant and Daniel decorate the driveway

Ann and James

Jennifer and James

So blessed to spend time with family!  ♥

Scones

There used to be a little hole-in-the-wall breakfast and lunch spot here in town, and Dan and I loved to go there on Saturday mornings to have breakfast.  The lady who owned the place was also the cook/baker and we loved her scones, especially her lemon poppy seed ones. Mmmm...

But as things go, running a one-woman hole-in-the-wall restaurant is a sure way to make a person tired, very tired, and eventually the owner called it quits, took an eight-hour-a-day job, and found rest. We were left scone-less.  Then a bakery opened in town and they featured scones, usually good ones, but the owner played around with the ingredients and one never knew what the day's offering would be. Some were not so tasty.  Eventually this bakery went out of business for the same reason the restaurant did: the owner wanted a life and some sleep.  Scone-less.  Again.

Meanwhile our daughter had been given a recipe for scones.  By me.  The counselor at our school was a gifted baker and often brought treats to share with those of us in the trenches.  One day she brought in some killer scones and I was able to get her recipe. Except when we made them, they tasted not so good.  I finally realized the counselor was an instinctive baker and she made changes that seemed so natural to her that she didn't even realize she'd made them.

I wrote the recipe off, but daughter Ann (also a scone lover) was determined to see if she could come up with something that worked.  After weeks of tinkering, she did it.  Her new recipe made delicious scones and I made them frequently for a while and then they drifted off my radar.  

This morning I had a hankering for scones and had some extra time before breakfast while Dan was off doing an early morning hand-off of a forestry project he'd been working on.

Scones are biscuit-like in that the butter is cut into the dry ingredients before the liquid is added.  This process has never been something I've enjoyed; in fact, I'd say it sometimes keeps me from making biscuits and scones. But somewhere, maybe from the Pioneer Woman, I saw a terrific idea:  use a cheese grater to grate the butter! So I tried it this morning and it worked like a charm; it literally cuts the work time in half! I see more, many more, scones in our future.

We make drop scones rather than making a circle and cutting wedges.  It's much easier and I confess to liking the process of breaking off a craggy chunk and popping it in my mouth.  They are pretty good sized because the rack pictured above is 12 x 18" and twelve just fit on it. (We'd already eaten three when I snapped the photo.)

Ann said I could share the recipe, so here it is:

Scones

1 1/2 cups white flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix above together until butter is chopped up fine

1/2 cup sliced almonds

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 T vinegar with milk to
 equal 1 cup)

1 cup dried fruit or berries

1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

Stir above into flour and butter mixture.  Mix until all dry ingredients are incorporated. Drop onto greased baking sheet (18 x 13" half sheet pan is perfect) making 12 mounds.  Sprinkle with coarse sugar.  Bake at 400 for about 17 minutes.  Remove to cooling rack, let cool for a few minutes and enjoy! 

Interestingly, I ran into the hole-in-the-wall lady at the grocery store recently, mentioned her scones and she said she'd send me her recipe.  She did, but it had two tablespoons of baking powder and a teaspoon of salt which I knew would be bad news in the sodium department.  Ann's recipe has a very small amount in comparison. WIN!  ♥

Blink, Blink

Blink twice and it's the end of April.  How quickly this year is flying by!  And as I always say, I wouldn't mind so much if I wasn't getting old at the same rate. {Smile}

It's been an unbelievably gorgeous spring here at the resort.  Our area doesn't often get a nice spring so those of us who live here are truly enjoying this one.  The greens!  The flowers!  Some years the leaves don't even emerge until June, so having all this luscious color is amazing.  

I am loving our front yard.  Hard to remember that last year at this time it looked like a crater-pocked pile of dirt after Dan and grandsons Cameron and Keaton removed the horribly over-grown shrubs and we pondered what to do next.  Every time I drive up I marvel over the change.

We haven't put the flower pots out yet but we probably could.  Usually we're waiting to be certain the freezing temperatures (or even snow!) are behind us.  Hmm, that reminds me that I could bring up the rocking chair that we have out there in the summer.  I'll do that today!  It needs a sanding and paint or stain dreadfully.  Maybe we could do that this weekend, but still, for now, I can sure set it out there.

We are just puttering away here these days.  Nothing much going on, but that's not a bad thing.  I'm continuing to have fun in the kitchen and I'm so thankful to have such wonderful tools with which to work.  We took my parents to Spokane last Friday as Mom had an appointment with an eye specialist. Afterwards we stopped at Trader Joe's and did a little shopping.  I discovered a new chip that's tasty and low in sodium:

I made some hummus the other day using a recipe in the King Arthur Flour magazine Sift and it's a great combination with the chips.  I love hummus but I've never made my own before.  My food processor made quick work of the process and I'll definitely do it again. Most of the recipes I'd seen before usually called for some ingredients not found in my cupboards but this one did not.  

Well, I'd better get a move on.  It's almost lunch time and then I'll be off to watch the little D-man for the afternoon.  They were gone over the weekend and had company last Thursday, so it's been almost two weeks since I've seen him and the rest of the family.  I can hardly wait!  (Love his rosy cheeks and tousled hair when he wakes from his nap.)  I'll see Cameron and Keaton, too, as they get home from school while I'm still there.   ♥

Yum!

At the risk of boring my faithful readers, I have to share my latest kitchen triumph.  Yes, triumph! When I received my stovetop pressure cooker some years ago, on the advice of my cyber friend CJ, I purchased Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass.  I used her book to guide me in my first attempts to use the cooker, and I've continued to rely on it whenever I have a question or need a reliable recipe.  

I was intrigued to note, early on, that she had a dessert section including a recipe for cheesecake. Yup, cheesecake.  I recently tried her rice pudding recipe with great success, but still hesitated to try the cheesecake. (Here is where I probably should mention that never in my life had I actually made a real cheesecake although I love them.)  

Enter my new Instant Pot.  Less stress because it controls everything, so I could concentrate on just making the cheesecake itself.  I was inspired, too, by a recipe on a blog site called Pressure Cooking Today that was a take-off on the Sass recipe and used the electric pressure cooker.  Each time I went to the store, I purchased something I would need to make one: cream cheese, lemons, graham crackers (didn't want to be too hasty in acquiring the ingredients!).  

Last night Dan was at a meeting, so I had the evening to myself.  I had anticipated that I might be brave enough to try, so I took the cream cheese out to warm up before dinner.  After Dan left, I read over the instructions one more time and began.  Truthfully, the hardest part was making the graham cracker crumbs! (Note to self:  buy the box of crumbs next time--can we say crumbs all over the counter?)  

Sass's recipe was straight forward and the only change I made was to add three minutes to the cooking time because electric pc's don't get quite as high a pressure as stovetops do.  And also because we are at an altitude that requires a little additional time.  

The result?  Here it is out of the cooker:

In order to fit in the cooker, a smaller 7" springform pan is needed.  I ordered this one from good ol' Amazon and it's so cute!  The length of foil to the side is for placing under the pan to lower it into and more importantly out of the pot (no burned knuckles!) and is part of Sass's instructions.

I refrigerated the cheese cake overnight after it cooled down and just took it out and removed the sides a little bit ago:

It looks like a real cheesecake!  More importantly, it tastes like one!  In a word:  Yum!  ♥

Tuesday, Choose-day

When our kids were growing up, we came up with the idea of Tuesday, Choose-day.  It probably started one Tuesday when we were all groggy at breakfast and we decided it would be wonderful if there was a day when we could choose to stay home and do whatever we wanted. We even came up with a name for it. From then on, everyone once in a while, we'd be eating breakfast on a Tuesday and say, "Hey, it's Tuesday, Choose-day. Too bad we didn't remember and stay in bed.  Oh well, guess we're up and ready, so off we go!"

So today is Tuesday, and here it is, after ten and I'm still in my jammies.  I declare it to be Tuesday, Choose-day!  Oh, don't worry--I'll get in the shower soon, but for now, I'm choosing relaxation and rejuvenation.  And Tuesdays truly work because it's the one day week after week that I don't have other things to do or places to be.

Meanwhile, pardon me while I shout, "Glory hallelujah!" because yesterday I finally faced a buffalo and got the last border on the Through the Winter Woods quilt!!  

I hate doing borders and this one had three.  Borders can be fraught with peril because they're long seams and if not done correctly, the edges can get wavy.  And with this one, wavy times three.  So, I procrastinated. And procrastinated. Which means, since I'm a weird quilter in that I only have one quilt going at a time, that I wasn't getting anything else done in the sewing room. Anyway, now it's ready to be quilted.  

I did make some bibs last week, however, when I discovered that I had just one girl bib left. There was a church shower Saturday morning for a baby girl who will arrive in a couple of weeks and of course bibs are my traditional gift.  (I will note here that I have at least a dozen boy bibs, but now that people know what they're having ahead of time, they are truly boy bibs and wouldn't work for a girl at all.)  I hadn't embroidered for I don't know how long, and so I oiled and cleaned my machine, picked out some designs and began.  Success! Here are a couple:

Sharp eyes may notice the knitted green baby blanket underneath.  I finished it some time ago, and actually blocked it!  

I love the blocking squares I bought because they can be joined into different shapes--long for scarves and square for things like this blanket.  So many great helps available for crafters these day! 

So here I am, happily puttering away on my Choose-day.  Time to make the bed and get in the shower.  And I just may choose to clean out the freezer!  It actually sounds like a fun thing to do today!  ♥ 

Mea Culpa

Oops!  I just realized I left my readers hanging in my last post.  Chalk it up to getting ready for Easter and catching up with some household chores.

Anyway, let me reveal the new toy that arrived in my kitchen two weeks ago:

It's called an Instant Pot and it's an electric pressure cooker--and so much more!  Here's a close-up of it's touch panel:

In addition to pressure cooking, it is also a rice cooker, a slow cooker, and has specialized setting for grains, soups, and beans.  I used it for the first time on Easter to cook rice for my dad.  Dad has had to go on a total no-salt diet and so I fixed him a chicken dish with plum sauce and thought rice would go well with it.  Cooking rice can be hazardous in a busy kitchen (boil over, anyone?), but it cooked perfectly with no attention once I put on the top and pressed the rice button, and waited patiently when done until I scooped it out.  Yay!!

Last week I did some pork chops that were thick and tough (I'd used a few from the pack previously), and they were fork tender when done.  I also used it for split pea soup with ham left from Easter. Dan was at a meeting across town and I wasn't sure when he'd call me to pick him up (I'd dropped him off that morning to save the hassle of trying to find an all-day parking place).  By using this new toy,  I didn't have to worry about leaving while in process! There's even a saute button so you can brown meats and/or veggies before beginning the pressure cooking process.  I still love my stovetop pressure cooker, but this one is truly a set it and forget it pot.

Oh, here's a picture of the insert--it's like a big stainless steel bowl and washes like a dream:

Cuisinart also makes an electric pressure cooker, but its insert is non-stick which requires some care. I found my new toy at Amazon and I see it's still at a great price.  (I get nothing for this link--I'm putting it up in case anyone is interested.)  I'm all for anything that makes cooking more fun and/or easier!!  

Love,

The Gadget Girl  ♥