Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Halpert.

Alternately: It's too fun not to be a nerd once in a while.

On Thursday nights, I run to my friend Jess's house right after dinner (although on these nights I usually manage not to eat any) in time for The Office, what will be 30 Rock, and Project Runway. TV night. Nothing else on the agenda. It's great.
We decided to really unleash our pop culture-couch potato-osity this week and join in the celebration with the folks on The Office. No, I don't have pictures of Jim on my desk, I don't have any Office flair on my Facebook account and I don't read The Office blogs. We just happen to enjoy watching it together and thought it would be fun to jazz up our evening.
I made this wedding cake and the clothespin doll cake toppers for the occasion. Jess made punch and our friend Penny wore a bridesmaid dress. (Well, for a few minutes, at least). We had fun.
And, really, when you love to bake you'll make any excuse, right?

Craft Social time again

It's that time again. Another Chicago Craft Social! This time, we'll focus on making gifts and ornaments for the holidays. Head over to the Craft Social blog to get the full scoop and to rsvp. Remember, space is limited!
If you happen to be interested in leading a project at this social, send me an e-mail and we'll talk.

We had some press last time, Beth Engelman from Mommy on a Shoestring, and have an article complete with demonstration videos to prove it. If you'd like to get instructions for a few of our past Craft Social projects or make fun of how I look or act on camera, here's the place. Thanks, Beth, for supporting us!

Reading is good

In case you've been wondering, I haven't fallen victim to some tragic illness rendering my hands paralyzed and unable to create or write about our creating. Rather, I've fallen victim to reading. Books. I'm an addict. It actually started last winter, but my addiction has become more severe recently causing my interest in using my hands for any purpose other than flipping pages to wane.
I'm not reading every minute of the day. In fact, some books have remained bedside for several weeks as I've found only a few minutes of the evening available for reading (that brief time between crawling into bed and finding the book on your face). Nevertheless, as soon as I find time to finish one, I'm on to the next.
I commented some months ago (here) that I would never post a list of books I'd read during the year on my blog as I'd find it too embarrassing. I'm revising that. I found it so enjoyable getting comments from you on which books you've loved that I'm doing it. I'm posting my list.
Some of the books I've read were at your suggestion. Others happened to find their way from a friend's hand to mine. Some happened to be on a shelf near the bed in which I slept at my parents' house. And some I sought out after enjoying other books by the same author. I'm still planning on following up on some of your previous recommendations, but I'd love to hear an update on what you're reading and loving. And when do you read? During a sneaky trip to the bathroom? While waiting for the oatmeal to finish it's go-round in the microwave? While sitting on the bench during gymnastics class? When you should be doing your own homework or preparing to teach on a topic completely unrelated?

My 2009 reading list
Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir by Marina Nemat
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell, which includes Mr. Harrison's Confessions, Cranford, and My Lady Ludlow
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
A Girl From Yamhill: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary (I just realized, after wishing this story would have continued beyond her high school graduation, that she does continue her story in My Own Two Feet: A Memoir. Guess what's going on my To Read list?)
James Herriot's Cat Stories by James Herriot (If you've never read his All Creatures Great and Small series, you should!)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Currently working on Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith

To Read:
John Adams by David McCullough
Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis
Something by Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food or The Omnivore's Challenge)
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (Somehow I've made it this far without reading Dickens and I feel I should remedy that).
My Own Two Feet: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary

So there you have it. My pleasure reads.

Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!

We have about 30 books out from the library right now, some for pure fun and some for the betterment of the nine 5 and 6 year old minds I'm teaching in co-op this month. This book, Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens and her sister Susan Stevens Crummel, happened to be fun and educational.
I heard Janet Stevens speak many years ago and have since been a fan of her books and illustration. We picked this up not knowing it contained a recipe for strawberry shortcake, but once we read and enjoyed the story of Big Brown Rooster (great-grandson of the bread-baking Little Red Hen) and his friends making a cake, we had to make one to match.
The story takes Rooster through a process of being hungry, finding a recipe, recruiting help, making and eating strawberry shortcake. It's a cute and educational story in itself, but the authors have added side notes on several pages explaining elements of baking like sifting (above) or using measuring cups (In the story, Rooster's friend Iguana attempts measuring a pile of flour with a ruler) which add even more educational value to the book.
The book ends with Little Red Hen's recipe for Magnificent Strawberry Shortcake. The cake is a simple one-bowl recipe made with 7 ingredients plus the cream and strawberries. My kids and I found it very do-able, attractive and good to eat.

Heirloom Tomato Tart

My daughter sampled a friend's homegrown heirloom cherry tomatoes recently and was excited to discover tomatoes come in a range of colors. She decided she's quite fond of the orange ones and proved helpful during our trip to the neighborhood farmer's market on Saturday where she picked out a variety of tomatoes to use in a tart. We chose a bulging orange one, a couple perfectly round yellows, and a few of the green zebra-striped variety. We were grateful to receive a few of your basic reds from another gardening friend (although we all know any homegrown tomato could not be considered basic when compared to a store-bought).
I must admit, because you may be able to tell upon closer examination of our picture, that I sliced the tomatoes a couple days before assembling the tart. Or maybe it was 3. You know, things happen. We still found the tomatoes very good (I had 3 slices of the tart for dinner tonight) albeit a bit weary-looking. I'm assuming a qualified cook would never advise going about it that way, but it worked for us.
My daughter helped in laying out the tomatoes on the tart shell and sprinkling the basil. Looks a little crowded with all that basil and you miss a little of the beautiful color, but, really, why skimp on the basil?
This is a great tomato tart from 101 Cookbooks and if you're still picking, you should give it a try.

Keeping the sippies clean

I'm going with the mommy theme again today. Sometimes I don't know whether to apologize for that or embrace it. It is our life here, after all, and winter is probably better for being crafty, anyway, right?

Once the kids graduate from nursing or bottles, I know most of us move them on to sippy cups of some sort. We have gone through several varieties in the last 5 years, but I have finally decided that I prefer Playtex.
Let it be known, first of all, that, to date, I have only purchased our sippies at Target. I choose from varieties that I feel like won't break the bank, but won't be replaced often. I have never researched all options found online or in specialty retail shops. I have found, however, some great comparison articles at Z Recommends which may introduce you to other sippy styles and brands (see links below).
For me, the Playtex cups stand out for 2 major reasons. They are easy to clean and don't tend to leak. Minor reasons for choosing Playtex would be that the lids and spouts are interchangeable and they are affordable.
It took me awhile to come up with a successful cleaning method for any sippy cup. It may be that I've struggled with it because I simply don't get around to washing our dishes as promptly as I should, but I don't think that's all of it. Some cups have clearly been more prone to grow moldy or have had very awkwardly designed parts making effective cleaning difficult.
I finally settled on pipe cleaners (chenille stems), toothpicks and the bottle brush for sippy cup maintenance. Pipe cleaners work wonders when washing dishes with crevices, spouts, and straws, and I was bowled over at my ignorance when my dad introduced that simple idea to me. Pipe cleaners are now a standard item found in the little vase that holds our dish washing brushes. Why had that never occurred to me?
I found these articles at Z Recommends interesting, but am also interested in other stories of success, or lack-of, in keeping sippy cups clean. Do you have one?

2009 BPA-Free Sippy Cup Showdown: Baby and Toddler Division, Top Picks

2009 BPA-Free Sippy and Straw Cup Showdown, Toddler to Pre-K Division, Top Picks

Social lactivist for a day

Last Friday I took my kids, met up with a friend and hung around Lincoln Square as part of a "nurse-in," held in reaction to an incident where a woman was publicly hassled for breastfeeding outdoors.
In my years of nursing in public, I was never hassled by a stranger, but I do know the difficulty in wanting to modestly feed your baby while carrying on with your life outside of home. It is not easy. So we donned the International Breastfeeding Symbol stickers and played and visited and watched as nursing moms were interviewed by television reporters.
You can find multiple versions of the story online. Here is the Chicago Sun-Times version.

Choc-o-late Chub-beez

I don't know why I wrote it like that. Yes, I do. I'm a goof when it comes to saying things in funny voices and then I try to write it the way I say it which doesn't work at all, does it? Probably one of those things that only your sister can get. (Can you back me up on that, Amy?)
For all normal-voiced cookie-holics out there, these are Chocolate Chubbies. My kids and I made these yesterday and yummmm.
Of course, now that I compare recipes, I realize why I like them so much. They're basically this cookie (one of my absolute favorites, but which I altered in that previous post to accommodate a filling) with a different name.
I used Nancy Baggett's recipe from The All-American Cookie Book but found similar examples around the web like this one. Play the recipe comparison game for a minute then make these cookies!

Two tips, though: Be sure you, or someone near you, can eat the majority of these the same day you make them. They get crumbly the next day, but are deliciously soft the day of. (That's IF, of course, you follow the common cookie-baking rule Do Not Overbake).
If you don't LOVE nuts, I advise reducing the amount and substituting with more chocolate chips. I always find these (the Nick Malgieri ones and now these) a little too nutty for me. I don't like swallowing all the yummy chocolatey parts then finding I still have a mouthful of little nuts. That's just me.

Chocolate Chubbies
2 cups (8 oz) coarsely chopped pecans
8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, broken up or coarsely chopped
3 T cold, unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1/3 c all-purpose white flour
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2/3 c sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/3 c (8 oz) semisweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper (or silicone mat) or very heavily coat with nonstick spray.

Spread pecans in a medium baking pan and toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, for 7-9 minutes, or until nicely browned; be careful not to burn. Immediately turn out into a medium bowl and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a large, microwave-safe bowl, nuke the bittersweet or semisweet chocolate and butter on 100-percent power for 1 minute. Stir well. Continue microwaving on 50-percent power, stirring at 30-second intervals. Stop microwaving before the chocolate completely melts and let the residual heat finish the job. Alternatively, in a medium, heavy saucepan (or double-boiler), melt the choclate and butter over lowest heat, stirring frequently; be very careful not to burn. Immediately remove from heat. Let cool to warm.

In a small bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended, thickened, and lightened. Beat the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour mixture, into the egg mixture until thoroughly blended. Stir in the pecans and chocolate morsels until evenly incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 1/2 hours or up to 8 hours, or until it firms up slightly.

Drop the dough onto the baking sheets by heaping measuring tablespoonfuls, spacing about 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 11-14 minutes, or until just firm at the edges but still slightly soft in the centers; be careful not to overbake. Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through baking to ensure even browning. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies are firmed up, about 5 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled.

These cookies are best when fresh but may be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Labor Day

Safe travels and a great holiday weekend to you!

Glasses fiasco and online eyewear

I have been wearing glasses for 11 years. Until last year, I had only worn 3 pairs total, a new set of frames every few years. Due to some annoying and coincidental circumstances, I now have 4 new pairs of glasses: one pair of sunglasses, one pair of ugly glasses (I'll be skipping that part of the story), one pair of attractive but apparently very damageable glasses, and the pair you see above.
I realized early last year that it was time I had my eyes checked and thought it would be nice to have a change of frames (my current ones being older than all my children). I scheduled a check-up to coincide with a visit from my mom who was planning to gift me with new frames. Thanks to the unexplainable complexity of insurance (and lack of information from store/office employees), however, it was months before I had a decent pair of glasses on my face.
(I just attempted writing out this story in more detail and realized it's way too convoluted. This will be the very abridged version).
After becoming adjusted to my long-in-coming new frames and prescription lenses, they began to break. I say began because they didn't break once, they broke 3 separate times. Now, during the previous 10 years, I had never had a lens break. And believe me, my glasses were dropped, pulled, yanked, stepped on, you name it. As far as I know, no one in my glasses-wearing family (and this totals lots of years) has ever had a lens break.
After a bizarre struggle in acquiring my prescription, choosing a lens that didn't cause headaches or visual distortion, and finding sunglasses frames that effectively did their job and also looked halfway decent, I wasn't really in the mood for having my glasses repaired every couple of months. My official opinion of Pearle Vision at this time is not very high. My glasses are, again, in their possession for a lens change.
The coincidence part of this long, bothersome story is that during my Pearle fiasco (going without my glasses periodically while they were undergoing lens surgery and I was undergoing withdrawal from a life before children when I could run errands by myself instead of waiting for the perfect timing when the store happens to be open, the manager and tech personnel happen to be working and my husband happens to be home), I was contacted by a representative from Glasses USA and asked to review their product. Free eyeglasses.
I don't really enjoy writing reviews and don't fancy myself too good at them, but they did catch me at the right time. Sure!
I don't do a lot of shopping online. I certainly don't buy things online that require a lot of personal attention to detail like glasses, fitted clothing, make-up, etc. But since I recently had an eye exam giving me a current prescription and a new pair of frames I could refer to for shape preference, this was perfect. I perused the Glasses USA inventory of frames, comparing the size of all interesting frames with my current and previous frames, and narrowed it down to one lucky pair. Now, looking at their prices, I have to wonder-what in the world is the difference in frame and lens material and labor used by this company versus Pearle, LensCrafters, EyeMasters or any other glasses company that I would describe as low-end but which costs significantly more?
As I've only been wearing these new prescription glasses for a couple weeks, I can't tell you firsthand how the quality outlasts others, but I can tell you, that so far my experience here has been much more positive than the one I've had with Pearle. My glasses arrived secure in a sturdy case with cleaning cloth in a timely manner, and company follow-up has been prompt and answers to questions thorough.
I am having to go through my usual trouble of multiple trips to the store (local LensCrafters) for adjustments (I have a case of one ear higher than the other, I think, and am easily annoyed by a slightly-off fit), but I would be doing that no matter where I purchased frames. I am pleased with the appearance of the frames, the accuracy of the prescription, the apparent quality, and the customer service (although I haven't had to use it, their eyeglass frames return and exchange policies sound very similar to that of other eyewear establishments).
Who would've thought? Prescription glasses online. I don't know what my route will be in the future when it comes time to purchase new frames (oh, please, let it not be soon), but it's nice to know there's an affordable and relatively easy option.
If you're in the market for inexpensive new specs, feel free to use this coupon code at Glasses USA for an additional discount: Mommy5.

Recent happenings

I'm back! I know, I never said I was going anywhere. It was an unplanned hiatus.
I'm going to do a little catch up here before getting back into some kind of routine.

In the time I've been away from the computer, we've:
Camped near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. (We managed to get a few hours of beautiful clear sky in between all the rain. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it.)
Celebrated my birthday. (Remember last year's?)
Celebrated my baby's birthday with homemade malted milk ice cream from The Perfect Scoop.
Visited the Shedd Aquarium downtown. (Look at that cloudy, cool summer day in Chicago. Good grief!)
Made butterfly contact and witnessed a sheep-shearing at the zoo. (We got lucky and caught one of the 2 yearly shearings.)
Toured Wagner Farm.
Filmed a craft demo for the Pioneer Press Mommy on a Shoestring column. (Should appear in about 3 weeks.)
Enjoyed a week long visit from my mom and started our homeschool History co-op classes.
Whew! And those are just the highlights.

I'll try to be back here soon.

Back-to-School Scavenger Hunt and Eco-friendly school supplies

My daughter starts kindergarten this year. We have decided to homeschool. This year. Just meaning I have no earthly idea if either one of us will take to it so I have no expectations whatsoever of what we'll do next year. But since we are doing it this year, I'm needing to get things in order around here.
I've been caught up in researching our teaching/learning materials and haven't thought much about preparing my daughter for the event. She's never been to preschool so the whole concept of school (except, of course, for her experience in our one-morning-a-week co-op last year) is still foreign to her. And homeschool is foreign to me. I think we both need something special to kick off the new year.
I prepared the idea for this back-to-school scavenger hunt for the Celebrations radio show, but didn't have a chance to share it. I've decided to use it with my daughter, whom I expect will be thrilled. Ours will, of course, be the start-of-school version.
Here you go....

Collect some of the items your child will need for school: pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, maps, book (on a topic they've chosen to study or one you know they'd enjoy reading), homemade reusable sandwich/snack bags, lunch bag, thermos or water bottle, interesting ribbon or key chain for house key, favorite snack, bracelet, socks, tiny tissue pack, markers, clay, paint, etc .
Find a school-related image (books, bus, globe, crayons, map, school building, etc.) online or scan one into your computer then print out several small copies onto cardstock. Cut them out and fold like cards or leave them flat like postcards. Use these for your scavenger hunt clues.
Hide the supplies/gifts around your house or outdoors and create clues to lead your child on a hunt for each item. Provide your child with something for collecting her goodies or lead her 1st to a new school bag or box.
Print or write your clues inside or on the back of your clue cards. Be cute and simple.
Example: I'll carry water or milk for you to drink. Look for me under your kitchen sink. (New drinking bottle in the play kitchen).
Monster, bug or bike. Sculpt me how you'd like. Stretch me, roll me, push me, pull me. Find me next to your blanket that's woolly. (New clay hiding on the bed).
After your child has collected all her new items, help her open them and prepare them for school, putting in her bag or arranging in her home study space.

If you're thinking of going green this school year, here's a short list of resources.

Stylish and eco-friendly snack bags, boxes, and bottles
Betz White's sandwich wrap
LunchSkins Reusable Sandwich Bag
Fresh Snack Pack
Stainless steel lunch box
Stainless steel lunch bowl and boxes
Not your plastic Strawberry Shortcake thermos

Eco-art and school supplies
Smencils and more at Stubby Pencil Studio
Recycled newspaper colored pencils and cute stuff
Adhesive paste
Binders, notebooks, and paper