Sourdough Breadzza Semi-Disaster

Looks delicious, no?? Keep reading.

Once upon a time a baker on Fisherman's Wharf in San Fransisco started making sourdough bread.  There was something about the San Fransisco air that made the sourdough starter particularly awesome.  Eventually, it became a franchised, much-better-than-fast-food restaurant, and one of the most recent franchises opened on my neighborhood a few years ago.  My neighborhood NOT being on Fisherman's Wharf, with it's groovy sourdough yeast spores naturally zooming through the air or whatevs, so they fly in the sourdough "mother" weekly. On an airplane and stuff.

Crazy.

Crazy GOOD.

Anyway, the restaurant has a promo thingie, where if you check in on your smart phone on each visit, you earn a free loaf of bread per month for the first six months or something.  I dunno.  I didn't pay that much attention.  I heard "free bread" and was all in.  

So, I take my little guy (who finished 6th grade today, btw, so not that little, really) and his bestie there for lunch as a little end of the school year treat.  And guess what?  Today was a free loaf day for me, so, SCORE!

And, it's Friday, which just means PIZZA around here.  Often I make it from scratch (dough included), sometimes we order in, sometimes we go out to one of our favorite pizza places.  But something about my free loaf of sourdough made me a little giddy this afternoon, and I remembered that much of the USA eats French bread pizza, so why the heck not sourdough bead pizza?

Only problem was, 6 year old Miss Thing has an extremely loose, owie front tooth (as in it's sort of grotesque, even) and there was no way she was going to be able to bite though the super thick, crusty-crust that this bread is famous for.  Hmmm.  What to do?

Instead of the traditional French Bread Pizza sliced horizontally down the middle... Slice it in thick pieces like it was bread (cause, it IS!) and go from there...

But! Then I thought that maybe the sauce would make the bread all googy and soggy, and that wasn't appealing in the slightest.  So I hatched a plan.  Turns out that it was a good one.

I have this method of making a crostini-ish garlic bread, wherein I slice up a baguette, brush each slice with Olive Oil, sprinkle with garlic powder (yeah, that's totally cheating. Don't care) and basil, then top it off with fresh grated Parmesian Reggiano or Romano.  Then I put it under the broiler for just a few minutes-- careful or it will burn... and quickly-- et viola! Mi famiglia's favorite garlic bread.  The top of my garlic bread is toasted and crusty... Awesome.

So, huh.  Maybe if I made it like my garlic bread and THEN added the pizza sauce and toppings it would fend off the soggies?

Oh em gee, it totally did, youse guys.  And, since I placed it on the bottom rack for the second cooking, the bottom got crispy too, which is nothing to sneeze at, either. 

In truth, I was the only one who liked it.  I used tomato *paste* instead of sauce, hoping that would be thicker and less likely to sog it all up, and my husband said that that was too "bright" tasting (I beg to differ).  And then, Miss Thing also has a canker sore in addition to her terribly wiggly tooth, so not only couldn't she bite into it, she couldn't chew it, either (I made her oatmeal), and my son, halfway through his first piece sided with daddy and made himself some Ramen noodles (don't judge me.  Sometimes it's the only thing he WILL eat).

So, bummer.  

Honest to Pete, though, it WAS good.  And the method was inspired, even if no one liked the sauce, and complained about the cheese coverage or (rather) lack thereof.  Personally, I would eat pizza withOUT cheese, so I thought it was nice of me to include a little at ALL, really...  I think there were a few other complaints thrown in there, too, but I stopped listening at some point, as I'm prone to do.  Sigh. 

I swear every time I try to do something different from my five or six meals that I KNOW 3 out of 4 of them will happily eat, they get all revolutionary on me.  And then they wonder why I'm all grumpy about it and stuff.  I am so tired of always making the same things.  I know Miss Thing will grow out of it (mostly, it's her causing a scene these days while my eldest is suddenly eating Thai food where he couldn't handle a little black pepper on his baked potato a year ago), but, ugh.

Am I alone in generally refusing to cook a second "special" meal for a little one (I did make her oatmeal tonight, because she was obviously in pain and not just being stubborn)?  I was always expected to not only eat what was on my plate, but to do so without complaining, or that would be that, end of conversation, to my room, hungry and too bad so sad, thanks for playing.  

Discuss.

I'm going to give a piece to Andy.  He'll eat it.

She is SIX...

  ...How did THAT happen???

Well, it did.  And of course, there was a party.  We RAN to the park, clucking like chickens for some reason (six year olds!) where we found paper bags and paints all set up for making paper bag hats.  Top right, is Miss M digging into the paint for her hat.  Paper Bag Hats are so easy and fun!  

PAPER BAG HATS:  Use a standard grocery bag, *carefully* turn it inside out (remove handles, if necessary), and sloppily roll the edges up to form the hat. Rolling too tightly makes the hat too big and crushes the paper, so make your rolls big and bunchy.   Messiness is no problem with this project, and it doesn't have to be perfect.  For really little kids, I've found that "pegging" the bag, (like we did the ankles of our jeans in the 90's, remember?  We were super-bad!) works really well.  Give the kids lots of colors to choose from, and make SURE the paint is washable! Go play some games while the paint dries and wear your creations proudly!

Top, right, you can see my son sneaking up on me to jam one on my head and the (blurry) result in bottom right.  Bottom left are two much bigger boys (my son and his BFF) in their Minecraft inspired creations.  If you have any computer geeks in your house, or are one yourself, you may recognize a Minecraft Pig and a Creeper painted on their hats/masks.  Those two are h.i.l.a.r.i.o.u.s. and I'm pretty sure that they are the Mutt and Jeff of the 21st Century.  Also in this collage is a cutie patootie from down the street playing with a hula hoop.  I could just eat him up.

While the paint on the paper bag hats was drying, there was a scavenger hunt based on things the kids could find at the park.  

SCAVENGER HUNT:  I made a quick trip to the park a few days before the party to see what could be found and took pictures (most of the kids aren't readers just yet), and photoshopped the pictures onto card stock (see bottom left image).  Then, I just pasted the scavenger hunt cards onto treat bags, so that a.) the kids would have somewhere to out their "finds" and b.) so that the cards wouldn't be lost.  The kids found as many things as they could, and brought the bags back to me for prizes/party favors (we returned the "finds" to the wild).  I also had them write their names on the bag so they could keep it to fill with piñata candy and more party favors later.  

Of course, the punch balloon favors were immediately blown up and (mostly) popped.  Hey! It's not a party until the balloons pop!

There were healthy(ish) treats to be had, and these two partygoers had quite a rousing conversation about how delicious/disgusting tomatoes are.  That sweet little boy was popping cherry tomatoes in his mouth like candy.  I heart him.  

You might notice the cupcakes, bottom left... Yes, they are UNfrosted... You'll see why in a minute.  The cupcake stand, I threw together with some hot glue, candlesticks and serving platters/plates that I had on hand.  I did this last year, too... Except that, LAST year, the hot glue separated easily after the party.  This time, I think I might have used a little too much hot glue! HAHAHA!  Cupcake Stand for LIFE!  

After the kids made their hats, had a couple of sack races and played for a while, I started assembling the DIY CUPCAKE BAR.  I thought it was a stroke of genius, and the kids LOVED it.  So, no, the plain, unfrosted cupcakes didn't look so party-perfect on the cupcake stand.... But, I knew if I frosted them beforehand, the frosting would harden, and the toppings wouldn't stick.  

DIY CUPCAKE BAR:  If you want to try this at your next party, I HIGHLY recommend it!  First, I filled two cupcake trays with different toppings (I used mini marshmallows, mini M&Ms, crushed chocolate sandwich cookies, gummy worms and different colored sprinkles).  Then, I gave each kid a little cocktail spoon and told them they could top their cupcakes however they wanted, but to please take one only little spoon of each topping so that everyone could have what they wanted (gummy Worms being the exception... everyone got a gummy worm).  I frosted each cupcake on the fly as I handed them out to the kids, and then the kids got to work on the toppings.  

The sprinkles were flying, the gummies were slurped, crushed cookie bits raining down... SUPER FUN!  It totally worked! But, I'm really glad that I covered the tables with parcel paper!  GAH!

Of course, the BEST PART about decorating your own cupcake is EATING IT!

Look at those happy faces!  I do believe my son was making a Minecraft cupcake, naturally (bottom right). Looks like a dirt block, reminiscent of his birthday cake last year.

And there was still time to play... And also get covered in paint!  Hahaha! Sorry, mom... But it SHOULD come out in the wash.... In the same picture, you can see our painted hats drying on garden stakes.  I had actually made sweet little coffee filter flower and streamers toppers for the garden stakes, knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time to decorate the park, and I figured I could just poke decorated stakes in the ground to gussy up the park a little (coffee filter flowers were based on the ones I made last year).  That was easy, too.  And, it made a durn good spot for the hats to dry!

The big boys had a go at some sort of hybrid sack race/three-legged race of their own.... Which worked out exactly as I suspected it would.  BOMP!

My husband has a new camera (HE took all these photos, btw... I was kinda busy!) and got to playing with the filters.  These are a little dark, but the ATTITUDE is totally visible.  Oh.my.WORD.  Is she six or sixTEEN???

I had also made a cake for the grown ups, but as it turned out, nearly everyone just dropped their kids off at the party (!) so I saved it for later and Miss M blew out her candle that night.  

Happy Birthday, Baby.  You are just my kinda girl.

Yarn Bombing My Neighbor Part II

The other evening, my kids wanted to go an visit our neighbor, Kathryn.

Specifically, my kids wanted to swing on her tire swing and pet Kathryn's dog.  We had a very nice time chatting with Kathryn and other neighbors, petting Kathryn's slightly nervous pooch, swinging on the tire, etc... when Kathryn mentioned that she'd been looking for a traditional, wooden swing to add to the other side of the tree. 

I had one in the garage.  Still in it's box. 

I was overcome by the need to own it while at IKEA a few months ago, wishing I had a tree large enough to hang it in, and figuring I'd make a frame or hang it from the porch, or SOMETHING... and for $15... I had to have it.  So there it sat, languishing in the garage-- a sad, terrible existence for a swing.

Seriously.  That's about the saddest thing I can think of right now... poor swing!

After some time messing with too short ropes and the subsequent finding of longer ones (that I had ALSO purchased with the intention of somehow hanging a swing... GEEZ! What is WRONG with me?!?), there are now TWO swings in Kathryn's yard.

Except that... except that... well... after we decided to move the tire swing on the other side of the tree (in  order to give the wooden swing more clearance), when we re-hung it, the whitewalls on the tire weren't showing on the street side, and Kathryn much preferred it that way. 

So, I jokingly mentioned that she really shouldn't worry about it, because I'd more than likely come over one night and paint a mural on it or something... But our other neighbor very nicely, and only half smirkingly re-hung the swing with the whitewalls in their proper location.

But still.  I had a plan.

TIRE SWING YARN BOMB

I had wanted to do this under cover of darkness for a surprise in the morning kind of a thing... but I went over to take measurements for the tire in the dark that same night, and it was pretty clear to me that there was NO WAY I was going to be able to attach this thing to the tire without light. 

So, I hung it in the day time, thinking she wasn't home. 

She was.

She came outside to see us (my kids were swinging again), and was utterly delighted... She was even happier that she was there to SEE it being done.  So... YAY!

I made it by making a line of granny squares a little bit shorter than the circumference of the tire.  I wanted to have to stretch it tight, so that it wouldn't be loose and kids could still swing.  The sides are made of simple, striped rows, decreasing stitches in each row so that the whole thing formed a donut when the ends were stitched together on site.

I was a HUGE relief when the thing actually FIT.  

 

 

It was NOT a huge relief to see the black widow in the interior of the tire halfway through the sewing.

She was really pretty and ultra creepy and spidery looking- with the scarlet-red hourglass shape of the Black Widow on her abdomen.  Creepy, man.  Oh, did I already say that?

She is now at the bottom of Kathryn's vacuum cleaner.  One just can't have a tire swing full of Black Widows. 

The kids mostly took turns swinging, and there was only one episode where one screamed loudly at the other to the point that momma had to threaten them with going home.



 

But that's how it goes.

 

And now, whenever I turn the corner into my neighborhood, there is this charming tire catching my eye.... 

And Kathryn, who has been a PEACH for the past 11 years has a fun, new swing.  Well, TWO, really...



Yarn Bombing my Neighbor...

Shhhh....





To be continued...

Must be Summertime...

I've been hit with a summer cold. Not bad enough to knock me down, but bad enough to make me lazy and not go to the pool with my family today. Instead, there was some much needed grocery shopping.

We've been watching a lot of 'Chopped' lately on the Food Network (chefs given a surprise basket of food from which to prepare an appetizer, an entree and a desert, and after each round, one of them is "chopped" from the competition until only one champion is left standing) and I've come to the conclusion that one shouldn't be in the throes of making dinner while that show is on.

Strange things come out of your oven.

Earlier this week there was a sort of chicken and vegetable pie thingamabob, that looked ridiculous, but tasted pretty damn good. Even my five year old like it.

Tonight, following the trip to Sprouts, things were going swimmingly until the giant Bing Cherry turnover thing I envisioned started leaking through the crust so badly that I had to act quickly before there was a serious cherry juice disaster.

So... in between the sprinkling cinnamon on the acorn squash and the snapping of the green beans, I dumped the whole, giant cherry turnover into my small jelly-rollish pan to save my oven from death by cherries.

Most of the crust ended up on one side, which wasn't exactly a good thing, so I chopped up the half-baked crust bits with my spatula, stirred it all together and crossed my fingers.

It totally worked.




Inside Out Cherry Pie is a new family favorite.

It may never happen again, but if I'm ever on "Chopped" and my giant rose water and prosciutto pie with candied Special K cereal sprinkles starts overflowing.... I'll know just what to do.







The rest of dinner was this: Grilled Tilapia with Lemon, Parsley and Cilantro, Fresh green beans with garlic and a hint of olive oil and acorn squash with cinnamon and just a little brown sugar.

I heart summer.

20 Minute Dinner - Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Busy little Bees over here. We've been doing things like touring the Middle School (GAH!), having year-end potlucks at pre-school (with pony rides!), working on new music, getting ready for an ArtWalk this Sunday, setting up a Not-So"Easy Set" pool in the backyard, etc, etc, etc...

But we still have to eat.

And so, I present to you, my go-to, favorite Quick Dinner, and my kid's overall favorite meal, hands-down.

It's something my mother started, and I tweaked (I added the Basil and the butter), and it never fails.  SO EASY.  Promise.

I'm going to apologize in advance for the fuzzy pictures.  It is apparently difficult to take pictures with an iPhone while your hands are covered in chicken goo and olive oil. and you are trying to hurryhurryhurry to feed hungry kids.  Lesson learned.

Julianna's Parmesan/Pecorino Crusted Chicken

Chicken breasts or Chicken Tenders
Freshly Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese (I prefer Pecorino)*
Basil
Butter
Olive Oil

Grate the Cheese onto a large plate, Like SO.  I've generally use almost a whole cup of grated cheese for two, large chicken breasts.  Now is not the time to skimp.  If you have a rotary grater like mine, it's just one lump of cheese cut to fit into the well/holding tank/cheese receptacle of the grater. 

Sprinkle on the Basil and mix it into the cheese your hands. Set plate aside. 

Add 2 Tbls EACH of butter and Olive Oil to a heavy pan on the stove.  Turn the heat to HIGH.  You want a HOT pan for this to work.

Cut larger chicken pieces in half -- they will cook more evenly and also more easily fit in the pan.

Pound out the Chicken inside some freezer paper (easy clean-up).  Take it easy, though.  Pounded chicken shreds are harder to cook.  I usually just pound them until they are about and even 1/4" thick.

Dredge/Pat the chicken pieces in the cheese mixture.  I don't dip the chicken in anything.  The cheese will stick.

Is your pan HOT?  Good. 

Arrange the chicken pieces in the pan to fit.  Cook about 3-4 minutes per side until golden and cheesy-crusty in the HOT pan. (I keep saying "HOT" because at lower temps, the cheese just melts and drips off the chicken.  That's not the point AT ALL...)

Serve with pasta, throw together a Salad, cut up some fruit, and this, my friends, is DINNER. 

Of course, if your kids are like mine, they will not eat salad, but they WILL eat cut up veggies.  This is Evan's plate.




*This will NOT work with the stuff in a Green Can!  Don't even THINK about it! 

Hand Made Dog Toys....

Since I DO have a dresser-ful of fabric....

...and since poor Andy's toy basket is down to decimated
bits of dismembered stuffies and assorted strings of
former rope chew toys.... I pulled out my trusty Husqvarna
this morning and made him a few new toys.

I made him several different ones, but the bone is his favorite.

Can you tell?

Look at that HAPPY!

Mmmmmm... stuffing.

But it's not long for this world, I'm afraid.

So the real question is... Is it worth it to make your own dog toys?  Have you ever?

What Happened, Here, Exactly?

Without getting into the whole dog thing again (not just Jack gone now, but my sweet Wally as well)....let's just fast forward to the present, shall we?

I have a puppy. A 6-month old puppy from the Shelter, whom we brought home quite literally the very day after we lost our Wally-Dog. I just couldn't bear not having a dog in the house.

Andy is very sweet.

Although, he does have mange (and THAT is an entire blog's worth of problems, right there, let me tell you...).

Skipping ahead, skipping ahead....

Andy has separation anxiety. There is a lot more to the story, but as I mentioned... We're skipping ahead...

I came back to this after a fifteen minute jaunt to the local El Pollo Loco drive-thru:

My joke on Facebook was that maybe it wasn't so much separation anxiety as a hatred for technology:

He massacred my brand-new, still in the wrapper "Wired" Magazine.

I was pretty shocked and amazed, and almost couldn't be angry.

Almost.

I mean, I giggled a little.

But I was still kinda mad.

And then I decided I HAD to leave the mess where it was, just to see the look on my husband's face when he came home.

I even grabbed my phone when I heard him pull in.

Here, he is both in shock and laughing.

He asks the dog what happened. Dog appears to know nothing about it.

And here, I do believe he's gone speechless.

The Great Magazine Massacre.

Wow.


(I might also point out that my house is not painted mustard yellow on the inside.  It's a very nice, muted, shade of green.)

Miss M turns 5....

Yes, yes, I know... I really need to get those pebbles from the Do Art Daily Show on the beach. 

True.

But, in the meantime... this happened. 

Miss M turned FIVE.

I do not understand how that is at all possible, and yet.... there were cupcakes and presents and friends and a party to prove it. 

I even challenged myself to come up with party decorations and activities made entirely of paper plates and coffee filters.

WHY?

I have no idea, but I'm blaming Pinterest.  Seems only logical....

It looked a little something like this:

The logical invitation to a Garden Themed Party.... A seed Packet

Hand-Made Paper Plate Birdie Bunting with Coffee Filter Flowers
(TUTORIAL Tomorrow!)

Paper Plate Birdie Detail

Afternoon snackies for hungry five-year old girls...

Butterfly cupcakes with piped Royal Icing Butterflies.
And, of course, when it matters, the Frosting WILL
fail and separate and probably because I over beat it,
or the butter was too cold or something equally stupid.
Tasted fine though.

Treat Bags waiting for the girls...

Coffee Filter Flower Straws
(No one wanted Lemonade... until they realized that it
came with a flower straw.  Then, everyone HAD to have it.)

Some of the girls in the backyard.

No planned games... Just a crafting table...

...with Coloring Pages, and crafty happiness.

Coffee Filter Butterflies:  Color a coffee filter with water-based markers.
Spray with water so the colors run and make a tie-dye effect. Gather
filter through the middle and secure with half of a black chenille stem
to form the body and the antennae.  Et Voila!  Another pretty Birthday Bunting.

Inspired by this post by the amazing Lindsay at Filth Wizardry,
I cut out paper plate hats, and made more coffee filter flowers for the brim.
The girls each decorated their own... well... And the the big boys, too.  Niiiiiice.

The butterfly cupcakes were devoured...

And Miss M is officially FIVE.  She looks pretty happy about it, too,
mouth crammed full of cupcake, and all that.

Happy Birthday, Miss Thing.