Sticky buns vs "healthy goodies"

The sticky buns Maya and I made this morning were DELICIOUS. I meant to take photos, but ate them all up instead. We made a 7x10 pan of them....and the recipe used 10 T butter for filling and topping. It was so yummy....but a bit heart attack inducing I know. The recipe was from Mother Earth News which had a rockin article about no-knead bread you can make in large batches and store in your fridge for up to 2 weeks...just lop off a piece when you're ready to have some fresh bread. You can also use the dough for pizza and these buns. I don't think I'll ever not have some dough in my fridge again!
So, in the morning we made sticky buns, and in the afternoon we made peanut butter cookies...Maya is currently obsessed with using cookie cutters, so I figured I would chill the dough a bit and she could go at it! I chose my recipe from a foodie website I really like....she does a lot of vegetarian and vegan, always has creative recipes and new ways (for me at least) to think about foods, and always uses interesting alternative sweeteners and fats for her baked goods. Also, the photography on the site is total food-porn...really beautiful.
So for the second time this week, I made one of her cookie recipes. It was ok...maybe even good...but just not satisfying to me....I guess I really need the butter and sugar. Haim and Maya like them though, so maybe I'll just keep this dirty little secret to myself!

Sunday Morning

Maya smells like butter, cinnamon, and sugar. YUM! We have been baking sticky buns together. She is sticky too.

Settling down and settling in a bit

After a couple of crazy weeks, and lots of jet lag, I finally feel like we're settling into a bit of a groove here. Between returning to South Florida, Haim returning to full time office hours, finding a new house, moving, and trying to unpack and find our stuff, things have been understandably chaotic feeling...on top of that I've been suffering from A LOT of jet lag, a bit of feeling funky, and Maya deciding in the last couple of nights that she's going to start night nursing like a newborn again. To say the least, I'm feeling a bit ragged!
However, I've unpacked enough that it's starting to feel like home, and the rest of the boxes are relatively organized so I can unpack them as we need....and if they are still packed in a year then I should think about (or definitely) toss them! We finally had internet installed in the house, and basic cable too, although we haven't brought our TV back from my grandma's house....and none of us really miss it either! I think it will live in the office instead of the living room when it does make its appearance.
Maya and I have been spending lots of time with Ava and Natasha, which both girls enjoy immensely...likewise, Maya has been spending lots of time with her grandma, which she always relishes. Otherwise, Maya and I have been puttering around the house a lot and doing domestic tasks...Maya "helps" me wash dishes, set out and sort laundry, cook, sweep, ect. She's also really good at reorganizing the drawers! Though it generally means that any task takes about 3 times as long, it gives me a nice opportunity to practice deep breathing and enjoy the fact that I have a child who loves to help around the house...I definitely prefer that to the alternative!
I've also been making my own kefir...from freeze dried packets and raw milk....still looking for someone with grains...but have been enjoying it immensely in a blender with some fresh or frozen berries and a touch of honey for a quick easy morning breakfast. I'll get back to making yogurt again soon I hope...and maybe even some yummy granola...
Today Maya and I make challa for shabatt. She loves to count and measure and dump the ingredients into the bowl...and she thinks hand kneading is a ball. I had reserved some egg white to brush the loaves before baking, and she REALLY wanted to mix it into the dough....I explained that we would use it when the bread was "ready" for baking. After we finished kneading, I put the ball on the counter next to her and told her it was "ready" and turned to get a bowl to let it rise in...Maya, being 2 and very literal, dumped the egg on top of the "ready" dough and turned to me beaming...I took a deep breath, kissed her, and explained that the dough needed to rise and braid first, so we would knead the egg into the bread so that it was not sticky and let it rise and do the egg again later....child still happy, mother calm, and no big deal...but deep breathing definitely helped keep that whole situation in balance! Humorous, frustrating, and totally my fault for not communicating clearly enough!
Speaking of bread, I've also been enjoying another bread recipe from Mother Earth News which is a multi batch, no-knead recipe and keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge...it makes a delicious, chewy, rustic loaf and can also be used for pizza and sticky buns. I don't think I'll ever again be without some of this dough in my fridge! On that note, I'm off to bed, tomorrow I plan to make sticky buns for breakfast!

Purim Princessification

It almost seems inevitable....the Princessification of our little girls. I have read plenty of articles, both academic and opinion pieces, about the societal (and parental) tendency to encourage girls to buy into the princess myth and archetype...and of course also that of the knight in shining armor. I totally agree, that there are MUCH more positive role models...Society at large does not seem to concur. None the less, we try not to buy Maya princess stuff....or refer to her as princess, ect...however, while we were in Morocco we bought Maya lost of DVDs for the long car rides. I always choose either animal cartoons, films with strong females, or rather neutral stuff like Maya the Bee....nonetheless, she spied, fell in love with and demanded "Barbie: Diamond Castle"...I acquiesced, you know what they say about forbidden fruit. And thus began our slippery slope!

Luckily, Maya does not yet get or desire the whole barbie thing, and is quite happy with her lovely cloth dolls...and we don't do big birthday parties, so I'm not terribly concerned about her receiving a bunch of barbie and Disney princess stuff, but it is out there, lurking around the bend. Also, a lot of her friends parents do not subscribe to my anti-princess philosophy, and in fact are trying to princessify as much as humanly possible...oh well, life will always present lots of options and paths, and to avoid or hide from the bounty of those choices is simply prolonging the inevitable.

So, it was time to celebrate Purim, and after looking all weekend I still could not find Maya's costume (an adorable ladybug she has used for 3 years now) in the still packed boxes...so Maya borrowed a costume from our friends before we all went to a Purim party. Here is an adorable cheerleader and 2 fairy princesses!

Just how many pairs of jeans is too many....(stuff overload)

This week we have been unpacking and settling into our new house. Having lived for the last 6 months without most of our stuff, makes me wonder how much of it we actually need. I will always be loyal to my kitchen stuff, I do feel like I use and need everything I have there...well maybe the 3rd service for 12 of everyday plates is overkill since it is still in the box; but we do regularly have 15 or so people over and I'm never upset when I break a piece, since I know there is more readily accessible, even if the store stops carrying it...And if I had it to do over I would NOT have registered for fancy china...we do have holiday dinners, and I would love to be able to use it there, but again, I have service for 12, and a holiday dinner in our house is never less than 20 people...oh well, live and learn...But aside from that I really do use all of the kitchen stuff!
Having just returned to Miami, and taken 100+ boxes out of storage, I am really feeling stuff overload. This is particularly true in the clothing department...3 or 4 boxes each...plus 2 extra large boxes of sweaters and ski clothing....What are we doing with that much cold weather gear??? So today I am attempting a ruthless cleaning out...we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!