Nouna's Bread

It's hard to remember the holidays without having a memory of my Nouna's Bread!! Without fail...every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas our mouths would water for this stuff. Nouna is the only one in our family who was able to truly keep alive her VeVe's special recipe for this amazing Greek bread. My mother and my nouna have been retelling the stories for years about how their VeVe (grandmother) used to make this bread, and always had a fresh hot loaf ready for them when they arrived at her house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, no matter what time their arrival was. I am soooo thankful that my Nouna shared her love for baking because she has passed the recipe down to me. It's not only a recipe...but a HUGE task. The recipe makes EIGHT loaves...but the hard work in making it....is sooo worth it in the end. I dream of eating this bread with butter melting all over it!!!!!! (No you can never have enough butter!!!!) I have made it many times in the past. I have had MANY failures...just ask Brett....have even come home to overflowing bread in my oven....and I have had some successes. This year I decided I needed to watch my Nouna so I could be sure to have her tricks down. So, today was the day!!! I'm trying to recopy my recipe right now so I can remember all of her special touches!!

We began early this morning. Little J was so excited for "Na's" arrival that he stood at the window waiting for her for about 20 minutes!!! It was too cute!





And of course, curious Joe had to be right where the action was.



I should have taken a picture of the 8 loaves after they were baked...because not only did they turn out beautiful...but they were extra delicious!!! Thanks Nouna for sharing your day with me and for sharing this special family recipe. I hope that someday when I am a "VeVe" my grandchildren will be telling stories about my warm bread too!!!

I'm dying to decorate for Christmas....but I am making myself wait till after Thanksgiving, since we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year! So besides our lights outside...we are pretty much still in Thanksgiving mode around here. There has been lots of baking going on, though...and my little mister is becoming quite interested in all those goodies lying around on the counter. Here is the little guy pretty much caught red-handed!!!





And a final funny before I email my Nouna to make sure I've got this recipe written correctly.... This is how I found Sophia brushing her teeth the other night. Apparently she remembered how the dentist sometimes makes her wear sunglasses during dental work....so she put on these funny glasses her daddy had given her from one of his jobs!! Too cute!



Whoops...one more...in preparation for her "Farmer's Market" at school tomorrow, we had to pull out a bandana for Sophia to wear. They all thought it looked more funny on mama's head.

Royal Icing = Royal PAIN

So.... I have had a lot on my mind these past few weeks. And what do I do when I need to clear my head????
B
A
K
E
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I was asked to bake cookies for a fundraiser.....so I decided my usual sugar cookie icing recipe was not good enough. Royal Icing it had to be. I've made this icing before...and never loved it....and this time after many trials, many errors, a few successes....I have decided it is just a royal pain. So the sifting of the powdered sugar drives me NUTS....as does the guesswork involved in how much water I need to make it of "flooding" consistency! The only positive??? Little J LOVES to pull up a chair and watch the mixer go on turbo speed to whip it to perfection. Oh my.... It's not even Thanksgiving yet....and dare I say I am already tired of cooking????

Well here is some of what I've been doing this week to clear my head:







More exciting than my baking was Sophia's Daisy Investiture Ceremony! Today she earned a Daisy pin and one of the petals for her Daisy flower on her vest (Today she earned the blue petal standing for Honesty and Fairness). She was pretty excited and her whole troop looked pretty darn cute. Sophia was the only one without her school uniform on...not sure if they were supposed to wear it (oops) or maybe the other girls were all in afternoon kindergarten and hadn't changed yet. Oh well..I loved that she was the colorful one...reminded me of the Olivia story when Olivia tells her mother she likes to be different than all of the rest!







I tried to get a picture of Joseph watching...but the stinker kept turning his head. He was pretty into the baby in the carrier right next to him!




And finally a picture of the new oil cloth for the kids coloring table....my old one (that I cut) was way too big and drove me nuts because it never stayed on and I was constantly fixing it so the kids wouldn't get glue and markers, etc on the table. Thanks to Brett....he got this one perfect....and even velcro'ed it....I don't think it's going anywhere! Love it!




Whew...the computer has been a nice break from frosting bags, frosting couplers, frosting tips, etc....Maybe it's time to move on to pies!!!

Tuesday Tidbits

It's that time of year again....(not quite Thanksgiving) but my mind is already boggling with Thanksgiving dinner preparations, Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, holiday crafts, holiday baking (OF COURSE!!) and much more. So much I want to do in so little time.... I have put up my first Christmas decoration (see picture above.... a gift from my mother :) The rest of the decorations will wait till after Thanksgiving. Thinking about decorating just makes me tired and I am already tired tonight...physically and mentally.

My guy is wearing me out these days. Little J has decided he can do EVERYTHING by himself these days..... The list includes:
-climbing into the car by himself
-walking up and down the stairs by himself
-pressing elevator buttons by himself
-trying to push the syringe of amoxicillin into his mouth (for his ear infection) by himself
-walking in the street????!!!!!????? by himself

Sorry Mister..but you can not walk in the street to get the mail by yourself....even if you are pushing your lawn mower. No Sir. SORRY...not gonna budge on that....So I guess I need to apologize to all the neighbors in advance for the screaming that I'm sure will ensue each time we try to walk to get our mail. I'm hoping reality will sink in soon!!!

Anyway....the week started with a trip to Hobby Lobby....have I mentioned before how much I LOVE this store??? Because I do. I needed to get some red and green and yellow construction paper so we could make our annual Christmas countdown chains on Thanksgiving day. (And so nice that Hobby Lobby is right next to Mardel...so I could immediately take the paper to Mardel to cut it into strips on their fabulous cutting board, and I still had time to laminate some things that have been waiting for lamination for months! ) Okay....so I admit....I did score a few other goodies at my trip to Hobby Lobby. My favorite...



Yes... finally a SCALLOPED circle cutter. I have circle cutters in all sizes....but never a scalloped one. I used to try to trace scalloped circles and then cut each little ridge out by hand... This little guy makes my life sooo much easier. I LOVE it!

We've been fortunate to still have some nice weather in November, so J and I have had some fun coasting down the driveway in his red car. He thinks it is just too much fun. I almost can't step out into the garage anymore with him....because he will refuse to get in our car if HIS red car catches his eye. And of course tears are still shed when we get in my car anyway...b/c it is not nearly as much fun as Daddy's truck!



When we haven't been outside... we've been busy crafting. Here's a picture of the new post-it holder I made since I can't ever seem to find a post-it quickly enough. Notice the scalloped circle on the design?????



And here are the santa's I'm making for the annual christmas lists. Sophia loves to cut out and paste pictures of the things she wants for Christmas on something "Christmasy." Last year her list was posted on a Christmas tree cut-out...so I thought Santa cut-outs would be cute for this year. I can't wait to see the pictures Sophia glues to her Santa!



And here is the completed turkey family.....mmmmm they smell good.



And while I've been busy with these things...Miss Sophia has been hard at work. I wish I could take pictures of all of her artwork....her imagination and attention to detail soooo amazes me. Here are some pictures from a book I did with her called The First Thanksgiving. Look at how great her pilgrim is!!!




I'm sure things will be a bit hectic from now till the end of January....but I think the holidays will be full of fun at our house. Christmas is such a "magical" time for the kids....seeing their excitement is one of the best parts of the season....and of course cookie baking is right up there too! :)

Speaking of cookie baking....here is one of my new most favorite blogs:
www.bakeat350.blogspot.com

Troopers!

Three-Fourths of us are on amoxicillin, and the strep, ear infection and sinus infection seem to be a bit more under control....so I thought we had turned a corner. But we've had a few more battles this week. On a good note....Sophia was back at school the entire week! Things seemed to be getting back to normal.....until we hit a sour note on Wednesday... the DENTIST. This poor girl just had an all around BAD day. After a tantrum induced scratch from the dog.... we headed off to the dentist....it was a visit to "check" her palate appliance ( I was told). I could tell she was incredibly nervous all afternoon.... as she HATES going to the dentist....and ever since I allowed the dentist to put this contraption in... I have felt nothing but guilt. She seemed too young. But not having a degree in dentistry or orthodontics.... I decided take the advice of our dentist and go ahead with it.

Before her dreaded appointment, I assured Sophia that the dentist would just be "checking" her. But I could sense that my words were not reassuring enough. When we were driving there... I commented on this crazy number of birds flying together in the sky...and her response????

"I wish I could be in the air with the birds... "
"Yes...it would be fun to be able to fly like that," I said.
"No....I want to be in the air with them...because then I won't have to go to the dentist."

Oh my.... after hearing this... I knew our trip to the dentist would not be a quiet one....and oh my....it certainly was not. Turned out that the appliance had to be removed, tweaked, and replaced back in the mouth. She screamed...she refused to open her mouth....she had to be held down. I tried to hide my tears......as I heard the dentist telling her he was not hurting her....because I knew that it did hurt. Why do doctors tell children things don't hurt? Just because they are children does not mean they are not human!!!! It does hurt and they know it....so let's not play games here. I'm all for having straight and beautiful teeth....but let's be compassionate!!! Did I mention the dentist has never had children of his own...hmmmm

Anyway... I knew I had to have the talk with Sophia about acting more "grown-up" when in public, and the whole talk about how sometimes things are not comfortable but you just have to try your best to get through it. I know it's my job to teach her these things....but at the same time I'm thinking....she's only five....isn't life supposed to be carefree and comfortable at that age? Should we really have to be worrying about narrow palates before she has even lost her baby teeth??? It's hard being a parent. I wonder every day if I'm making the right decisions for my children. I have a hard enough time making my own decisions.... let alone making decisions for these two little ones who can't always do so for themselves!

So with a little motrin... Sophia was almost herself again. Next battle....h1n1 vaccine. I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should get the vaccine for the kids. I had a feeling that the kids may have already had a bit of the virus anyway....but my doctor convinced me that I definitely should get the vaccine if it was offered. On Thursday, Blue Valley district offices offered a vaccination clinic for the wee ones....and after much deliberating and feelings of guilt that I would be a bad parent if I did not get the vaccine, I decided to take Joseph to get his shot. We only waited outside for a few minutes before the line got through the doors... and the actual wait was only about an hour....not too bad (despite the fact that Mr. J was pretty darn unhappy that I "forced" him to stay in his stroller the entire time). Anyway... after we got through the tears....things were fine.... I thought.... But by the afternoon... Joseph had developed a pretty high fever and became awfully cranky. Where had my sweet baby gone???? Oh my... immediately I was on the internet researching the side effects of the vaccine. I do think he probably felt crummy as a result of that. And he hasn't been quite himself ever since. But I guess if the mild form of this is all he gets....that is better than the alternative of getting a more serious form of H1N1, right? Hmmmm....again... I'm hoping I made the right decision for this little guy!

Whew! So we made it through a few more battles this week. And now... .it is the WEEKEND....and believe it or not... it is November 7th and it is forecasted to be 77 degrees today! Notice the summer-like attire on the kids today!!!!





Wow! Hard to believe Thanksgiving and Christmas is just around the corner...but of it is...and our preparations are already beginning! Our bulletin board looks fallish with Sophia's contribution of a scarecrow.



We made this same one last year....but this year as I was getting ready to cut the pieces for her to glue... I decided I should try letting her cut the pieces herself. Wow... I can't believe I have missed what an excellent cutter she has become despite the fact that I keep forgetting to buy her lefty scissors! But guess what? She cuts with her right...probably because her negligent mommy has made her use the wrong scissors for so long!!!! Oh my....this girl just keeps impressing me....her artwork and school work just gets better and better every day!!!

And Thanksgiving... here we come!! Already having fun with these little guys....(well, I guess I'm having more fun with them than Sophia!)

Can't wait....

The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Originally uploaded by Bakerella

To get my hands on this....

Trickteet....Hap HaWEEEN!

Even though both Sophia and Joseph were a bit under the weather this Halloween....they still found a way to enjoy every bit it! The anticipation for this holiday began long before the month even started. Sophia LOVES Halloween and picked out her Mermaid costume probably before school even started (with Yiayia's help of course). We were worried that she would change her mind with so much time left before the big day...but fortunately she was still incredibly excited to be a princess mermaid by the time Halloween arrived. I was hoping she would get more wear out of the outfit...but since she was sick for her school party and for the "Trunk or Treating" event at school....she didn't get to dress up until the night of Halloween. I guess that long wait probably made it even more exciting for her! Of course the lipgloss, blush, and eyeshadow I got to apply probably added some degree of excitement as well!!!





And as for Mr. Joe....he was the perfect accompaniment to our beautiful mermaid....he was our crab prince! Poor guy has been cutting some new toothers for a few weeks now and trying so hard not to catch sister's strep and virus....he made it pretty far....but it all got the best of him this weekend. He probably felt pretty crummy by the time we went trick-or-treating; he had developed a pretty nasty cold and cough not to mention FOUR new little teeth poking through his little red and swollen gums! Poor guy! But what a trooper....he may have been a crab....but he was far from "crabby!" at least for the night anyway!




He wasn't too sure about wearing his costume at first....it was pretty hot underneath all those layers!!! But as soon as we went out...he was ready and rearing! He insisted that he walk....(the stroller was just not where the excitement was!!!). And he wanted to grab his own piece of candy at every house (we rehearsed trick-or-treating at our house while playing in the basement the day before). But he only took ONE every time AND he always said Tank you!!!! What a polite little guy!

Yiayia and Pappou, Thea, and Omi and Papa and Eryn all stopped by for some spooky spaghetti pie and creepy cupcakes...and thank goodness they stayed to answer our door for the many trick-or-treaters who visited while we were out! And of course they kept Mr. Willie under control! His heart must have been racing all night with the number of times the doorbell rang! I'm so glad someone got a picture of him with my camera....I just feel awful that I forgot to put his Happy Halloween scarf on!!!!



Of course we tried our best to get a picture of all of us before heading out...but that can be quite a task with too little ones bubbling over with excitement! Sophia was being her gooney little self! And keeping Joe in one spot these days is of course near to impossible!





Here are a few pics as we were out trick or treating. Sophia practically took off running...and Joseph did his best to keep up! He loved saying "Trickteet" and putting his candy in his pumpkin!




This Tigger (like the "blow-up" vampire in our neighborhood) has been a favorite of Sophia's for 2 years. Joe has become very fond of him too.. and calls him "Big Tigger" as he is about 4 times the size of our little Tigger on our porch! I got Sophia's picture next to this cute guy, but Joseph didn't want to get too close!



And of course all good things must come to an end....so here is the little guy coming back home looking pretty content with the "pop" in his mouth!



But the party wasn't over when we got home. Sophia enjoyed her cupcake ( I made them especially for her since she does not like candy!!) while sorting her candy with Thea. Joe and "Boo" got a little lounge time on the sofa....and Joseph helped pass out candy to our trick-or-treaters! We had quite a few probably due to the great weather! I can still see Joseph running to the door when the doorbell rang and saying "Hap HaWEEN and ba-baye!!!" Such a friendly little guy and even when he didn't feel good!







Well our Halloween weekend ended where it began...at the doctor's AGAIN! This time J has an ear infection. Okay 3 weeks of this crud is ENOUGH! Poor guy... I am listening to him struggle to breathe right now because of his congestion! At least both kiddos are on antibiotics now....so I'm praying for some relief soon.....but I guess I won't hold my breath waiting!! And on top of his 4 new teeth, congestion and ear infection....(as if that wasn't enough)....when we took him out to get a little bit of fresh air yesterday in the gorgeous weather....he took off running down the driveway ( I guess he had cabin fever too) and he fell flat on his face!! Can you see the scratches next to his eye???



Hard to believe that Halloween has already come and gone. Why does time feel like it just slips away faster and faster every year? I am already nervous about Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations. So much I want to do... in so little time. Here's what I found Sophia thumbing through this morning.....



Yet another sign that Christmas is around the corner. I heard her ooooohhhing and ahhhing for about 30 minutes as she grabbed a pen to circle all the things that she just couldn't live without! This girl is a riot. If only we could find everything in the Toys R Us catalog...wouldn't that make life a bit easier?

Hmmmm what's on my wish list this year????? Well, unfortunately... I don't think you could find this:

http://a.img-dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD90/images/preview/front.jpg

or this:



in the Toys R US catalog. But I'll just keep on dreaming! :)