They say that she has progressed 2 years this year and is very well caught up with speech and language and exhibits normal pronunciation issues of 4 year olds. She still has some social issues to work on (sharing, wanting to be the boss, controlling others) but that she is ready to move into a mainstream pre-k class in the fall with continued speech therapy.

They had no suggestions for summer programs. She isn’t old enough for summer school (which is only 2 weeks anyway). They feel like she is very bright, empathetic, curious and is the class Mommy and Science kid. She loves being outside, exploring and investigating. When she likes what is happening, she is a full, enthusiastic participant and when she doesn’t, well, she’s pretty stubborn.

I am always awkward and weird in those meetings. I hate sitting in a room full of people who have been talking about my kid. I don’t even know these people, and yet they know Katie. Makes me stabby.

Also, her hearing was tested and she is showing some hearing loss in her left ear. The nurse said her ear was waxy and that may be why, but that we should get her tested more thoroughly.

Anyway, Katie will continue at the same school but in a larger classroom, one that will even have girls in it.

I love this kid so much. I want the whole world to love her and appreciate her as much as I do. She’s just the coolest.

If you are interested in this organization, leave me a comment and I’ll send you the information. I’m not sure what all else they do, but I think they do a food bank, seed distribution, gardening classes and who knows what else. You can also call the Rabun County Cooperative Extension Service for information.

I heard of this cool thing to do.  Have the kid help you bury jellybeans in the ground, tell them you are growing lollipops.  Make sure you do it a few days before Easter, then Easter morning, stick lollipops in the ground.   Katie checked her “seeds” about 10 times a day and when she discovered they turned into lollipops, she was completely over the moon.  Pro-tip: Let them know it only happens on Easter, otherwise, you’ll be burying jelly beans for ever.

She and Tom went to an Easter Egg Hunt yesterday and she was a great little egg finder.  Of course, being in a cow pasture with the eggs just laying on the grass made it easy, but still.  Tom took lots of video of it and during one part, I was particularly proud of the parents we are.  There was a table filled with cookies and I could hear kids screaming, crying, throwing fits for cookies in the background, the camera was on Katie.  Tom asks her if she wants a cookie, she says “No, Thank you.”  I was so proud of her.

Here are a couple of pics:

In other news, I have the new Daring Bakers challenge and may be doing it Tuesday.

Happy Easter everyone!

This is my first month amongst the Daring Bakers, a monthly cooking/blogging challenge.  I joined to be challenged and to say this months choice of desserts was challenging would be an understatement.  It certainly introduced me to unknown techniques as well as unfamiliar recipes.

This dessert is made up of Pate Sablee, caramel, oranges, orange marmalade and whipped cream.  All made from scratch.  I started out with the marmalade late one night after the Bug went to bed.   I’ve never made any sort of jam/jelly/marmalade before, so it was an adventure and I was quite surprised with the results.  I’ve never been a fan of marmalade but this was quite good.  Fortunately, the recipe made more than enough for the Tian so I had some left over.  YUM!

The next morning, bright and early, I started sectioning the oranges.  For those of you that recall the frantic months before we moved here and how determined I was to be able to see the sun rising over the mountains, I give you this:

The next step was making the caramel.  What could go wrong with cooking sugar so hot that it melts and then adding cold orange juice to it?  What could possibly go wrong?  Besides the 14 different ways I was panicking while waiting for the sugar to transform into caramel, it actually went rather smoothly.   Adding the orange juice freaked me out a bit since everything seized up, but I put it back on the stove and ultimately it melted into caramelly orangy goodness.

Making the Pate Sablee was not only easy, it was divine.  It is very much a shortcake type of dough/crust thingy.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have as much left over of that as I would have liked.  I’ll make it again soon and try making a milano type cookie something with it.  Pate Sablee is excellent as crusts for tarts of all kinds.

Besides making the whipped cream, the only thing left to do was to construct it and put it in the freezer for a bit.  I ran into a little problem because I knew I did not have enough molds to make these things, if I even had one the right size, I certainly didn’t have six.  After thinking about it a while, I realized that soup cans were about the right size, so I had Tom cut a few in half for me, and ta-da! 6 forms!  They are also a great size for big biscuits, cookies and I’m sure more things, since I’ve already used them twice in the two days I’ve had them.  I don’t know that I would cook anything inside them, I’ll have to google that, but a clever solution.  Just so you know, it is a dollar pincher too.  I saw a link to some molds about this size at Sur La Table for $7 EACH!  Not that I would ever spend that much on metal circles, but just letting you know.

I doubt I’ve ever ordered a citrus dessert in my life.  I’m more of a cake girl, or even a tart girl, but not much of a citrus girl.  I was not expecting much from this dessert and figured the worst case scenario was that Katie would enjoy it or it would disappear into the night time snacking that Tom is so fond of.  Let me tell you exactly how wrong I was.  These were delicious!  Much lighter than I thought that they would be and also far more subtle.  I wasn’t overwhelmed with any of the flavors yet they blended together beautifully.   The only thing I think I could have done better was the Pate Sablee, I think it would have been a bit better had I taken it out of the oven a few minutes earlier.  The rest of the dessert is so light and fluffy (YUMMY CLOUDS!) having a crisp crust was disconcerting.

Overall, this is a fantastic dessert.  I look forward to doing it again, I think it would be fantastic with strawberries and apples…ooh, apples would be yummy.  The caramel and apple combination would be delicious.

The experience was fantastic and I enjoyed every bit of it.  Just so you know, the challenges come out on the first of the month so I’ll be doing the cooking most likely the Monday after the 1st.

Here is a pic of one I took out of the freezer a tad too soon, but I dolled it up with spun sugar.  Hey, I was making caramel, why not go a step further for some spun sugar?

And thus concludes my first foray into the world of  The Daring Bakers.

By the way, the dish used is from a beautiful tea set my mother gave me.  I’ve never been able to find anything about it and only found one picture of it online.  Not even replacements.com could help.  It is by far, my most favorite dishes and they looked amazing with this dessert.  Thanks Mom!

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman

Or, it just could be the recently developed skill of selective hearing. At any rate, wish her luck.

Here are a couple suggestions:
The Road-Cormac McCarthy- Amazing story of a father and son trying to survive after a disaster wipes out society.
Alas, Babylon-Pat Frank- A small Florida town tries to rebuild after a first wave nuclear bomb hits. Written in 1959 and holds up amazingly well.
Where Late The Sweet Bird Sings- Kate Wilhelm- A small group of medically inclined people prepare for the end, when it comes they are in a unique position to experiment. This was an interesting look at what happens when humans can no longer procreate, without the ickyness that occurs in:
The Handmaids Tale-Margaret Atwood-After the disaster, many women are infertile and this is the twisted tale of how society handles it.
The Postman-David Brin -Please, ignore the movie and read the book. The movie mutilated a wonderful story. This book does an incredible job of telling the story of the little things that make us feel human, when there is not much evidence there is any humanity left.

So grab a book and see what we do, when the unthinkable has been done.

There is definitely a rhythm to living here.  While it can be rather slow (read 12 inches of snow) during the winter months, the spring and summer are complete madness.   Where I work, we’ll serve as many people for breakfast as we end up serving all day during winter.

Due to Christmas and snow, Katie has been out of school for a while, she was back this week and low and behold, she’s got a cold.  Even her bus driver is out sick and according to the driver, of the 6 or so kids on her bus, about half are out sick.   I guess that is what happens when you have a bunch of snotty kids stuck in a room with recirculating air.    Speaking of the devil, I just got a lap full of Katie.

It is so foggy outside I can’t see to the fence.  It has been rainy and foggy when it hasn’t been snowing.  If anyone sees that yellow orb in the sky, send it my way, I’d like to remember what it looks like.   The good news is, it has been relatively warm and I was able to open all the windows and let some fresh air in. YAY! Also found the gasket so our steam vac is working. Double YAY!

I’ll be accepting reservations for visitors.  Just let me know when you want to come, I’ll have the bread baking and the blankets turned down.  Fair warning, new chicks start arriving the first of April.

I made Tom take a couple of photos, not just because we were making cookies, but because we were using Mrs. Carsons cookie cutters. I can’t even imagine how many cookies have been made with these over the years. You can tell she liked them because she had a ton of them. Dogs, hearts, santas, candy canes, stars, turkeys, you name it, there is a cutter for that. I got a few things from her pantry when they were emptying her home, one of the other things I got was an awesome Romertopf clay cooker that is one of my most favorite things to cook with. Mmmm…Balsamic Vinegar and Rosemary Chicken and Vegetables. (I confess, the potatoes never turn out when I make that, but I’m working on it.)

Things I can’t do:
Make any other type of potato other than mashed.
Park
Cook pasta correctly
Remember to give customers their salad plates
Hard boil eggs reliably

Things I can do:
Make awesome bread
Follow about any recipe and it come out ok.
French braid

My lovely Mother in Law gave me my birthday present early, so this website and my email address are brought to you by Linda. I promise, I’m trying to get decent photo album software installed here so I can update it easier.

http://www.archive.org/details/StepSavi1949

Awesome sauce! I may take a sawzall to my kitchen. Thank you Prelinger Archives. This film was made in 1949, we still don’t use a lot of the great ideas in it.

Hey, there is at least a foot of snow on the ground and it is 7am, what do you want from me?