Jennifer's Junky Life ~

A Good Day to Bake

eta: The french bread was a keeper! It was nice and crusty with a soft center. So good...! And, the Sweet Orange Buns are to.die.for. Next time, I will reduce the sugar, though, as there was way too much sugar in the filling and it almost dries out your mouth. The filling also bubbled over and spilled into the oven while it was baking - so it would be better to reduce it anyway. I reduced the butter in the filling, as well, when I made them but would reduce it further next time. We don't eat that much sugar or butter in our bakery anymore and I normally cut the sugar by half or nearly by half when I bake - but I didn't want to tweak these too much until I'd tried the original recipe first. Everyone loved them! end of edit.

It was almost -30° overnight. Winter is finally here! And I'm enjoying nothing more than hunkering down in a warm house with a nice little fire burning in the wood stove.

Source and recipe.

I decided to bake some Sweet Orange Buns today. Been wanting to try the recipe (above - I substituted 1 c. whole wheat flour in my recipe) since I came across it in my recent issue of Saveur magazine. They take 6+ hours to rise in the fridge so they're in there and will be ready for the oven this evening. Can't wait to try them. The filling that goes in them is divine! If that's any indication of how the buns will taste... man! Here is hoping.

Actually, I'm really crossing my fingers that we'll like them. I would love to have more roll options. The only one that we all love around here is this one and I would love to have more choices when it comes to sweet rolls.

I'm also working on a batch of bread. A new recipe, A French Bread. And as I'm sitting here, it's just about finished with the first rising and I'm afraid it's about to spill over my mixing bowl! I've made two different recipes in the past couple of years - and we liked them both but I'm still looking for 'the' one.

I love homemade bread. Is there anything better? I make it pretty often, but not necessarily every week. We don't eat sandwiches that often. Things changed pretty drastically when Carter was a baby and was diagnosed with severe peanut allergy.

That's really what snowballed me into making bread regularly (or fairly regularly) in the first place. We had been purchasing our bread from our local baker but he had an allergic reaction due to cross-contamination so I started making my own. I love that I know exactly what's in it and I can use all organic ingredients.

Incidentally, he's been reaction free for some time but he broke out in hives three times at my mom & dad's house over Christmas. Nerve wracking, to say the least... I don't know if it'll ever get 'easier' for me when that happens. I just get so worried that it will be worse than just hives - so far, we've been lucky. Only hives, and Benadryl has given him relief.

My family has been so awesome about his peanut allergy from the very beginning and they have never had peanut butter out or peanut butter bakery while we are there. They're very cautious about it and it means a lot.

We figured out it was probably because of peanut oils/peanut butter residue on some toys that had been played with by his little cousins who eat peanut butter (it was invisible - but there, nonetheless). We also figured out that one incident was due to one of my brothers... He had eaten peanut butter fudge and hadn't washed his hands after eating it, before coming over one night and was playing with Carter and his new remote control helicopter that he'd gotten for Christmas. An innocent mistake but a good reminder of how cautious we need to be with him!

He is super sensitive and no matter how much we do to protect him, there will always be reactions. All we can do is the best we can and to hope for the best every time.

Fruits of Our Labors

We've been enjoying summer. But I'm so ready for this heat and humidity to dissipate! This is my least favorite weather, and the truth behind my dislike of summer. (It's my least favorite season.) I was telling Mark that I probably would love summer if we had a/c.

But we don't and we don't have plans of getting it anytime soon.

And we sleep on the second floor of our house...

We live so far north that our hot spells usually don't last too long. And all summer long, with the exception of these brief over-a-week-long hot spells with 90° temps and high humidity, the nights get really cool. Cool enough to cool down the house so we can keep the windows closed all day and it feels nice in here. Normally.

I guess I'm just not crazy about the heat because you can only take so many layers off before people start giving you odd looks and start calling the police.

The truth is, I didn't love winter until we got our wood stove. The heat is so much different than that of a furnace that the house feels cozy and warm and I love it! I look forward to it all year long and it's now my favorite season, second to fall.

Back to summer, the kids and I went berry picking one morning at the beginning of the month. This is what nearly 80 pounds of strawberries looks like. In case you've ever wondered.

This is what cleaning, removing stems, and freezing them looks like. At least it's what it looks like with the amount of boxes I could fit on the table. The counter was full, too.

What a job! And I made the mistake of doing it a few days before my Craft Show. It took all day to get these cleaned and in the freezer. Nikayda and Abram helped out a lot, later on, with taking the stems off for me. And all of the kids did a fabulous job of picking this year! They were really excited to go and did great. The only thing I need to remember next year is to bring water. They were getting thirsty by the end. It took us about an hour and forty minutes to pick around 77 pounds but the weather was nice and it didn't start getting too hot until we were nearly finished.

{Simple doily art that I made for the Craft Show.}

I'm so happy to have all of these in my freezer now, though. It was totally worth it! There is nothing better than pulling out freshly picked frozen berries all year long. They have such a delicious fresh scent to them. I love to open the bags and take a long inhale when I take them out. It's like pulling out a piece of summer all year long.

We eat smoothies a lot around here so I'm not sure if these will last 'til next year or not. But it's much more than last year so at least they should last longer than the fall.

{Playing in the rain.}

I made strawberry jam for the first time in years. I can't remember the last time I made it and I used to make it a lot. But ever since Carter was diagnosed with peanut allergy as a baby, we just haven't had it very much since we can't do pb&j's anymore. It's such a treat to have it again!

{Making mud: playing with the hose in the sandbox.}

I made it using Pomona's Pectin. This was my first time using it and I followed the recipe to a 't' and used the 1/4 cup lemon juice and tried it with 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of mashed berries. We love it! It tastes like freshly picked summer berries instead of overly sweetened berry jam. I highly recommend it. (But keep in mind, you won't have a jam that's nearly the consistency of Jell-o like you do with Sure-Jell. It will be much more soft but spreadable and not runny.)

I hope you're enjoying your Wednesday! This is the last day of serious heat and humidity. It's supposed to drop nearly 30 degrees during the night. Can't wait!

Cities Run

I had the opportunity to go to Trader Joe's and Target yesterday in the cities (3 hours away) with my sister, Sara, and it was so much fun! She had two of her kids and I had three of mine. And they were all good little troopers the whole day. That's not to say that my kids didn't step on a nerve or two throughout the day, but overall they were good, considering we spent the entire day in stores! (Below, Abram (First Grade) doing his daily reading to me for school. One of my favorite parts of the day, snuggling up on the couch.)

It was my second time at Trader Joe's and Sara's first -- what a blast. I picked up a bunch of new things to try and wish I was closer to it so I could go get more. Namely, the Greek Honey Yogurt and the Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus. They're both fantastic and I only bought one of each.

That was my first taste of any kind of Greek yogurt and I knew I'd like Greek yogurt once I heard about the dense/creamy texture. With the honey, it was perfectly sweetened, just the way I like yogurt. The hummus had just the right amount of kick to it. (I don't like too much spice. I can't handle it. But this was really good.)

I also made some organic orange juice tonight for tomorrow's breakfast and tasted some and that was real good, too. It was mild and not to sweet -- just right for breakfast I thought, and a bargain price for organic orange juice concentrate.

There were so many, many other items I wanted to try but I tried to be selective in what I chose this go round, not wanting to go quite overboard yet as Mark just started working again.

Carter has an appointment to see an allergist (for his peanut allergy) this spring and I'm wishing it was near a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (which I've never been to) but it's not... and I'm thinking it's not quite worth another hour to go there... But it is near a Target and a thrift store. So, that's pretty good, too!

Looking forward to a lot of family time this weekend. Can't wait! I know it's technically Thursday night but not sure if I'll get on here again on Friday or not... Have a great weekend!

Food Allergies and Intimacy

I just came across this article while I was cleaning out my email, on food allergies and intimacy from Allergy Moms. While the type of intimacy mentioned here is a long way off for my little guy (thank goodness!), it still hit close to home due to his level of sensitivity to peanuts and I wanted to share it for anyone else interested in learning more about food allergies (and exactly how sensitive some people are to their allergens).

It's not a myth that someone can have an allergic reaction, or even die, from kissing someone who has eaten the food that they're allergic to. And as more and more people (unfortunately) develop food allergies, this is going to become more of an issue as the years go by. (Currently about 7 million people in the US have food allergies -- that includes adults and children. Chances are pretty good that you or someone you know has a food allergy.)

The majority of Carter's allergic reactions have come simply from contact with unseen (peanut) allergens, possibly oils and residue left on surfaces that he's touched and then inadvertently passed to his mouth, nose or eyes where the allergen quickly enters and attacks his system causing hives, a clear runny nose, and extreme wheezing (which can ultimately lead to an anaphylactic reaction).

He's had numerous attacks like this...so many, that I've lost count but we've been so blessed because although some of his reactions have been pretty scary, we haven't yet experienced anaphylactic shock (and I pray we never do!). Nevertheless, I am terribly shaken any time he has a reaction because I realize it could happen at anytime. I'm always on high alert and my adrenaline is pumping when he breaks out in hives.

The only way to keep him safe is to avoid all contact with peanuts or foods and surfaces containing peanuts. Absolutely zero contact. Sometimes that feels like an impossible task when we're out this great big world, and rightfully, it's changed our lives. But, although, it makes me feel somewhat fearful, I don't feel sad about it because it is what it is. This is our life. Sure, I could feel downright sad when I think about missing out on peanut butter cookies or peanut butter kiss cookies (formerly, my favorites!) but that's nothing compared to the protection I feel for my little guy! I'm a mother bear. (Below, Carter, ready to take on the world. The kids were playing pirates the other day. Excuse the poor night time lighting.)

I thought it was going to be so hard to live a peanut-free life when we started on this journey, but by some miracle it's become second nature and I don't think twice about it anymore. We just had to change our way of thinking and looking at food. There are a surprisingly lot of foods that he can still eat. Who knew? It felt very overwhelming when we first started reading labels but, essentially, it forced me to start cooking most of our food from scratch because even though he can still eat many foods, there are a surprisingly lot of processed foods with warnings on their labels.

No matter what challenges this allergy brings our way, life is good because most importantly, we have a happy, healthy, and might I add spunky, little boy. Mark always says that spunk will take him far when he gets older...if he learns to channel it in a good way.

Saturday Night :: Sara's House

We crammed a lot of visiting into last weekend. Technically, we only had Saturday together as Friday night was the shower. Sara made lasagna and Caesar Salad for everyone for supper so we all headed over there around supper time and hung out for the evening. It was delicious! Below, the kids coloring in all the coloring books (with the big box of crayons) that Auntie Jeanie (my sister) had given them for Sara's shower.

These two are so cute! I just loved watching them play all weekend. Too bad they're at the stage where they're so busy! Although, that's exactly what makes them so cute! It just meant no time to sit and snuggle with either of them.

Emily and Kirsten and Heidi and Adrian ended up heading back to my house around ten with Nikayda and Abram. I stayed at Sara's and Kaitlin and Gretchen came home with me a little later sans kids. Mark had left early and taken Carter home with him because he had had a peanut allergy reaction. Below, Amanda had the box on her head for Kendall, but I missed the shot.

 

L to r: Amanda, Gretchen and Emily.

While we were there, he broke out in hives on his face. It started with a super runny nose and sneezes. He kept blowing his nose and I initially thought he was getting a cold that just came on super fast. But a while later, the right side of his face had red blotches (hives) and his right eye was all bloodshot.

L to r: Gretchen and Kaitlin (the twins), Heidi with Adrian and Emily.

I gave him Benadryl as soon as I saw the hives and red eye and it cleared right up but since we didn't know where he had contact with it (a toy possibly? But, it could have been anywhere. Sara said they'd had peanut butter this past week when a friend was visiting), I thought it safest for him to go home. It was almost ten anyway. But it was nervewracking to say the least. He hasn't had a reaction in a long time and nobody had peanut butter in their bakery or ate it while we were around this weekend.

 

 

L to r: Mark, Heidi, Molly with Adrian, and Amanda with Kendall.

 

He woke up about 4:20 a.m., that night, wheezing and coughing, a risidual effect of his allergic reactions so I ended up bringing him up to our bedroom and giving him his nebs to clear it up. And, he's been a little wheezy off and on for the past few days. The usual stuff he gets after a reaction. He's been fine, just needing nebs here and there. (Thankfully.) Below, l to r: Amanda, Sara, Mia, and mom.

 

It's disappointing because he hasn't had a reaction in quite some time and of course, naturally, you hope that it will get better (even though, I feel like I don't allow myself that hope because the statistics are pretty grim when a child has had this much contact (this many reactions) with their allergen. Subconsciously I still do). Below, Adrian is such a little pun'kin!

Orrin (Sara's).

Kirsten (Emily's).

On the other hand, I know we're so lucky. We take him everywhere we go and he's only had reactions in other people's homes and once at church. I know it could be a lot worse! Below, taking pictures with their cameras of the kids and showing them. L to r: Gretchen, Orrin, Jeanie, Lori (Sara's) and Emily.

Kendall (Amanda's) and Mia (Sara's).

Sleepy Adrian.

Emily has an i-phone and we were laughing at all the kids crowding around  her and watching videos of her boys and, I think it was Sara who said, "Only in America!" because it looked like a picture from the back of a Reader's Digest.

The whole weekend was fun but the best part were moments like these...at 2 a.m. when it was quiet and there were no little kids interruptions around. (Maybe there was one, but he was sound asleep!) So, it's only fitting that this was the last picture I took this past weekend. L to r: Heidi with Adrian, Gretchen and Kaitlin.

There are 8 girls in my moms family (and 3 boys) and they have an annual sisters weekend (plus my grandma) that they've been doing for many years. They always have a blast.

We've been talking of doing a sisters' (and mom) weekend for a couple of years now but financially most of us haven't been able to do it yet. So, this was the perfect get together. Although, we've all said it makes us more excited for the time we can start doing annual sisters' weekends without kids. I can't imagine how much fun it would be with no interruptions from all of our little ones!

We were monsters

The kids decided today that they all wanted to be monsters. Nevermind all the other ideas they had leading up to this day. I love the whole dressing up/painting the face thing about Halloween and I always have to step back and let the kids take charge of their costumes. It's the one day a year they can be whoever they want, so I try not to interfere -- even though I usually have all kinds of ideas for them. (Normally -- not so much this year.) I didn't dress up this year, although, I'd wanted to.

They had their Book It certificates, so today, even though I'm still not 100%, we decided to venture out and let them use them for an early supper (late...really, really late lunch) at about 3 p.m.

I grabbed their trick-or-treat bags as we went out the door and we ran halfway through a subdivision on our way home.

This was Carter's first time ever going Trick-or-Treating. The other kids haven't gone for a couple of years. We normally have a little Halloween party at home where we dress up and pass out treats to our friends who stop by.

With life threatening peanut allergy, we have to read every single label on his candy and I open it for him and put it on the table to avoid cross contamination. (There could be peanut oil on the wrappers from touching other candy and we can't take that risk.) Nikayda and Abram each ended up with some peanut butter stuff and I made sure they ate them right away -- with a reminder not to use the drinking cup in the bathroom when they need a drink tonight. We never bring anything with peanuts into the house. For us, this is living on the edge.

I hope you all had a safe Halloween, too!

I ain't ever satisfied...

I love having this new camera, but it's done nothing to squelch my desire for a Nikon digital SLR. In fact, dare I admit... it makes me want one even more? Don't get me wrong, I love this thing! I really, really do. It's a lot faster than my old one. It takes better pictures in low light. The zoom is better and I'm happy with the picture quality -- especially on motion shots. But I want something that I can manipulate the focus on and I want a huge zoom lens... and... a bunch of other things that are possible with an SLR.

The kids and I stopped at a park the other day when we went to the thrift in D.L. so I monkeyed around some (in the super bright, late afternoon sunlight as seen in these photos). I think I finally figured out how to upload pictures to my computer. I think... For some reason it wasn't letting me put them into Picasa but when I did it via the program that came with the camera it worked -- and the pictures miraculously landed in Picasa. Weird. I don't know anything about all this technology stuff. And, I don't like having to figure out new stuff like this. (I love learning new things and I love change, just not necessarily where it pertains to technology.)

It was so gorgeous again today. 64° F, sunny, and windy. The kids and I had to run an errand, this afternoon, so we stopped at the park on the way home. Does it count, if I sat in the ol' bargain cruiser the whole hour we were there and talked on the phone to my mom? I suppose that didn't give me much outside time but it was too windy to talk outside.

While I was on the phone, a lady and her grandson, who was about four, stopped to play. We had been the only ones there up to that point. As the little boy walked up, he held out his hand offering candy to the kids. (I inwardly cringed.) I hate when anyone offers the kids food or candy due to Carter's peanut allergy. It's thoughtful but it's a whole new realm when you have food allergies where a reaction can happen simply from contact.

Two of the kids shook their heads and chose not to take any. Guess which one accepted the candy? (Hint: He's pictured right above.) At least, he came to ask me if he could eat it before he ate it. So, he's learning. But it opened up a whole new conversation about not accepting any candy from anyone (because there is always the possibility of contamination on the wrappers from peanut butter if it had come into contact with it). Every year has definitely gotten easier with him. I look back as recently as last year and it was still pretty hard when it came to food because he'd still want what everyone else was having if it was a buffet at church or food at someone's house or that sort of thing. He knows better now and it doesn't seem to phase him anymore. It's just a natural part of life for all of us now but it sure was a lot of changes at first. It feels good to be here where it's all second nature -- well adjusted to our 'new normal'.

A clown can juggle, too.

Things will be relatively quiet around here for the next little while. No specific measurement of time as I don't know specifically how long 'the next little while' will be. And, if you know anything about me by now, you also know that I could end up posting every day now...

But, anyway, we're settling into school around here and all of my concentration is focused on juggling that along with the purging I'm trying to get done with in the loft and the rest of the house. (Some of you may remember I have a goal to have our house as purged out and cleaned up and organized as I can get it by the end of 2010 -- and I've still a long way to go due to that little thing we call procrastination.)

Sunday school started this past Sunday and all three of the kids are in Sunday school now. Carter's in the preschool group although he'll be five this month. We both think he best fits in with that group of kids maturity wise even though at home he seems to be ready so we're starting kindergarten.

 

He was super excited to finally be going to Sunday school when they walked out the door Sunday morning! Mark ended up staying with him because of his PA (we've decided that we'll stay near the church until we feel he's capable of looking out for himself). But when he told Carter that he'd be out in the car, he cried and wanted him to stay with him (no big deal) and he wouldn't sit at the table with the other kids but instead wanted to sit at a table nearby (again, not as big a deal). But then when it came time to color his picture, he whipped his crayon over the paper and angrily scribbled across it and then crumpled it up and threw it on the floor. (He's been going through a streak of defiance lately and I haven't figured out yet how to curb it.) So, Mark said he calmly picked it up and started coloring and eventually Carter wanted to color too. By the end of class, he'd decided he wanted to sit with the other kids. So, we'll see how next week goes!

Random pieces:

I finally tried raw goat's milk and it's really good. I think I might even like it better than cow's milk although there isn't a huge difference in taste.

It's been gorgeous around here lately mid-50°'s and 60°'s and sunny. Beautiful fall days! Yesterday, it was about 65° F and I sent the kids out in the afternoon after they were spending too much time in the house fighting. They were out for a short while when they all came back in complaining that it was too hot out.

Yeah. Right.

Needless to say, I sent them right back out again with instructions to change into shorts if they were too hot. And no one even bothered to change.

I've been reading the Junie B. Jones books to the kids after one of my cousins mentioned them last spring. She warned me that they say 'stupid' a lot and she didn't care for that part either but they're so funny. (My kids already say 'stupid' a lot although I don't like it and am constantly asking them not to. I'm pretty sure it's just a rite of childhood, about as easy to stop as your kids growing.)

Carter learned how to write my sister Molly's name last week so he's been writing it on everything. He even wrote it along with his name on his spiral bound yellow notebook for school. I'm hoping this doesn't mean he'll begin to think his name is 'Carter Molly'...

Willow and Chloe

We got another dog this weekend. A one year old black Aussie Shepherd that was trained with chickens and goats. It still remains to be seen if she'll protect ours from the fox... And it still remains to be seen if she'll be a good companion for Willow.

Willow loves her. She doesn't love Willow.

Willow will playfully jump around her and she'll lunge angrily at Willow's snout. Not good.

Her name is Chloe. She loves the kids and she's pretty well trained.

The fox ate three more chickens last week and that was the last straw -- we figured it was time to try a working dog.

I picked a ton of basil from the garden tonight. I'm hoping to make a batch or two of pesto. Or pistou as it's called when you make it with almonds like I do. (I haven't been able to find pine nuts without a peanut warning.) I found the recipe last year and it's really good! I'm hoping to stock the freezer with it this year. I'll post a recipe one of these days!

Just because I looked in it four times doesn't mean it was there

I keep my camera in the bag I take everywhere. The bag that holds Target brand Benadryl and Epi pens for peanut allergy emergencies. The one that holds sanitary hand wipes, hand lotion, an issue of Saveur magazine, ibuprofen, my sunglasses, a glass jar of water, liquid hand sanitizer and baby wipes, which even without a baby at the current moment, I find indispensable when on the run. All of the essentials I never leave the house without. So when I found my camera in there yesterday, I was quite surprised. (Below, tools of the trade. I can't, for the life of me, cut a straight line. I'd love a huge paper cutter someday!)

Apparently, it was in there the entire time. I looked nearly six days for it, including three times in that very bag where I keep it, and it was in there the whole time?

I don't believe it.

I'm blaming it on the camera fairies. They're playing tricks on me. And, it has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with my own mind. The funny thing is, when my sister, Sara, took my kids home with her last week, I quickly checked the bag one last time before she left with it. I checked it right in front of her, and it was.not.in.there.

 

But, what do you know? I found it at last and that's all that matters! (I'm not losing my mind. I'm really not. No. Really. I'm not. Okay, I totally am.)

This is the locker cupboard that I've been working on. I have no idea if there is a technical name for this thing but it's been fun to work on. I still need to put some lace or ribbon on the shelf edges but I am in love with this 70's wallpaper. It's my favorite I've found so far. I love this color combination, sort of an olive green and light turquoise mix.

If the roll had been larger, I would have done an accent wall in it, I love it so much. But I'll settle for shelves in lockers.

I've unloaded two large plastic totes of linens in here so far and there is still room to cram more. I'm not worrying about getting everything too organized just yet. I'm only concerned with grouping like-items together at this point. Hankies, doilies, crocheted potholders, linens of various sizes, pillow cases, sheets, scarves, antique baby clothes, pillow shams, and tablecloths. It feels so good to be getting this done. I need to organize all of my lace, ribbon and zippers, too. So I need to get another locker. (Below, if you pretend you don't see all the clutter in the picture, I'll keep pretending it's not there.)

I have a few more single-door styles in the basement but they need a bit of work. I know at least one needs to be painted. Lockers/metal cupboards are one of those things I can't resist when I find them at sales or at the local dump. I always grab them. If they're white or light in color.

I passed on a really great wardrobe style one yesterday because it was dark brown because I'm thinking I have enough paint projects right now!